Better Than Space
by iSpazzyKitty
Summary: Space core doesn't need anything besides the hope that he can one day go to space. Curiosity doesn't need anything besides the answers to all those questions she always has. Or do they?
1. Prologue

**So, I quickly fell in love with the couple Spacosity, because I love Space core and Curiosity core to death, and they seem like they would get along fantastically! So, yes. This is my attempt at a Portal fanfic that actually makes some sense. Hehe. (Not saying others' fanfics don't make sense, I'm saying most of mine don't. lol)**

There had been the bored glare, there had been the angry snarling and barking, there had been the monotonous cake ingredients, and there had been the bombardment of questions.

"_Grrrashkhabdksbfskagakgjkal!"_

"Fish shaped… toxic materials…"

"Ooh, what's that? What is _that?_ Do you smell something burning?"

And then they'd all been dumped into a hole which quickly became a tunnel. And the heat had grown more intense with every second they continued to fall. Curiosity knew immediately where they were all headed, and with that thought confirmed by the heat, she'd screamed at the top of her audio processors the entire way down. This was the end. They were all going to die. She was going to _die!_

Why had that lady thrown her down? Hadn't she known this would mean death for them all? Or maybe she had known and in which case, that kind of made Curiosity a bit sad. But, the horrible terror left little room for sadness.

To make the matter worse, in order to burn to death in the incinerator, it would require them to all be sitting down there for a long time. An incredibly slow, painful death awaited them all and this was the only time Curiosity ever wished she hadn't been build to withstand up to 4000 degrees Kelvin.

If she was going to burn to death- actually, if any kind of death was to be involved- she would've preferred it to be quick and painless if the third option of _not dying_ wasn't available. All of this came to her automatically and as quick as they were falling, and she only had time to think about it for a few moments before the heat started to hurt really bad. She shut her eye and prepared for the unbearable pain that she was about to endure. And then-

_-clunk!_

Curiosity opened her eye and looked around frantically. They had stopped. But how? How had they stopped? Why was it now actually darker than it had been before? She gazed down and found the answer. Anger and Morality had been right next to one another when they approached the narrow opening and become lodged into it, leaving them stuck in this tunnel that lead to death by fire.

Logic core was right above them, and Curiosity was balanced on top of him. As soon as they'd gotten stuck, everyone had stopped screaming. Anger core was silent for once in his life, and Logic core was moving his optic around lazily, taking in the surroundings.

"It appears… we have… broken the fall… by lodging two cores… into the opening…" he said flatly. Curiosity would've grimaced if she'd had a face. His voice had always struck her as creepy, and this was no exception.

"Isn't that obvious?" Curiosity asked him.

"We should… make cake…"

"How do you expect to do that? How are we going to get out of here? How can you think of _cake_ at a time like this?"

"I have a recipe…" Anger started to growl. Curiosity knew he wanted Logic to just be quiet for awhile. They were all in shock, although it was hard to tell with Morality. She looked about the same as she'd always looked: bored and uninterested.

"Is it hot down there? Does it burn?" Curiosity asked Anger and Morality. Morality simply glanced her way, before turning her attention to the fire below, which Curiosity couldn't see well. Anger didn't respond; he was also staring into the orange abyss and Curiosity started to feel thankful that she _couldn't_ see it.

"It's a long one…" Logic continued. "It begins with two sacks of flour…"

"Can't you just be silent for awhile? Please?" Curiosity asked.

"I don't have an answer… for that question…"

"Why not? How can you not have an answer?" Curiosity started to get slightly aggravated, which only aggravated her more. This emotion was for Anger to experience, and look how he acted because of it. She preferred to stay curious.

What she didn't know was that she would be stuck in here for a long, _long_ time…

* * *

Space.

That was his goal, his dream. Space was the only thing he ever talked about. He almost never even _thought_ of anything else. The other defective cores who were awake had long since abandoned the hope that he would rant about something else. _Anything_ else!

"Space! Going to space; can't wait! Yes, goingtospace. Space, space, spacespacespace. Ba ba babababa, ba ba ba baba…"

"Can't you shut up for one freaking second?" Rick yelled.

"I'm the best at space."

"At least talk about something else! Talk about _girls_ or _adventures_ or _shaving _or… _me! _Ya know, man stuff!"

"Wanna see the stars."

"Yeah? Well, you know what I wanna see?"

"Fact: Nobody wants to know that." Fact piped up.

"Shut up, Four-Eyes!" Rick snapped.

"Galaxies, meteors, stars." Space continued.

"That's it. I refuse to believe that you're literally talking about space. For my next adventure, I will decipher the code you are speakin' in!"

"Needa rocket ship. Needa rocket ship to gotospace!"

"Whadaya mean by that?"

"Space." Space seemed so happy and unaware of the other cores. His optic twirled around gleefully. "I'm going to space!"

"Fact: Space does not exist." Fact said.

"_Yesitdoes!" _Space protested. "I'm going to space! Space is big! And there's stars! And I'm going to space!"

"No, you're not!" Rick yelled.

"Space."

"You know what? I hope you explode." Rick said, quickly giving up his attempt at trying to find some kind of code meaning to Space's rambling. "Yeah, that's right. I hope GLaDOS takes her giant claw, picks you up, drops you in a big box with glass walls, and then bows you up. And we can watch. It would be SO funny. Ya know why? Because, it's much more ENTERTAINING THAN LISTENING TO YOU TALK ABOUT SPACE!"

Having been stuck in that cage with only a simple-minded core who was obsessed with space and a weird pompous core who's facts didn't even make sense half the time, Rick was at the brink of insanity. He should be in a room full of pretty ladies, not a cage with a bunch of deactivated cores and a couple of fast-talking retards as his only companions!

"Space if fun. Space is the best. Let'sgotospace!" Space continued, having ignored Rick's entire little speech, which only angered him.

"GAAAHHH!" Rick screamed.

"Fact: You need to calm down before you explode." Fact said.

"Fact: If I had a pair o' legs, I would kick you so many times that your face would implode!" Rick turned to Space. "And you! I changed my mind! I don't want you to explode! **I want you to catch on fire!"**

Rick feared he really would spend the rest of his life screaming his hatred towards the other two cores. There was nothing else to do and they were really starting to rub him the wrong way. They were stuck in a big cage with no limbs of any kind to assist them so Rick couldn't even move away from the two of them, even a little. He was doomed to listen to Fact's stupid comments and Space's constant obsessive shouting without any pretty ladies for the rest of his functioning life.

Or so he'd thought.

* * *

Cleaning up the facility had begun as the most horribly irritating thing GLaDOS could've possibly had to do. The facility was a total wreck, complete with plants growing through the walls and the ceilings literally falling apart. Half of the wall panels sat piled on the floor like they had nothing else to do. There was water everywhere. There were holes everywhere. Not to mention, the wing made entirely of glass… which was broken to tiny little bits.

And no test subjects.

The thought had been so appalling for awhile, so GLaDOS had allowed herself to have the most fun she could with taunting Chell before dropping her down to test. Chell, the human that had killed her. GLaDOS had been so happy to see her again, so that she could at least make her life miserable while she, admittedly, had a rough time herself having to clean up the facility. Waking up without being able to locate Chell again was something GLaDOS was glad she didn't have to think about.

The first and most noticeable thing to do was to clear out the pipe systems that carried all the cubes, gel, and other stuff that got stuck in them, such as the bunches of turrets that had somehow gotten stuck in there. She'd began with trying to force everything to go through, but when that hadn't worked- everything insisted on getting all clogged up- she'd decided on reversing the suction and pulling everything into one big, huge dump to be organized by the systems that were created specifically for organizing things so she didn't have to.

As she did this, she returned to her thoughts.

At least she had Chell to test. Besides, she was different than other test subjects. She was better than ordinary test subjects. She was determined. She never gave up, no matter _what. _And yes, she was always up for an escape and some destroying, but GLaDOS wouldn't allow her to escape. It wouldn't fly to simply _let her go_ out of fear ,just because she'd killed her once.

And that was when it dawned on her: she only needed one test subject. And this particular test subject would give her all the satisfaction she needed. That little… _monster_ had ruined everything before, and now GLaDOS had to clean it all up. By herself. So, if she _had_ to do that, then Chell had to provide a good reason to, by testing… for the rest of her life. Eventually, GLaDOS could round up some other humans to test for her, but none of them would compare to Chell.

And GLaDOS was going to enjoy watching her _test…_

**Please tell me what you think. I'll be uploading the next chapter soon, but I want to know how you like it. If I messed up any facts about the game or anything. Especially the 5000 degrees Kelvin thing. I heard that online but I couldn't find it anywhere when I looked it up. So, if it's wrong, please tell me, and I'll correct it. ^^_  
_**

***EDIT*  
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**Fixed it after GLaDOS tried to kill me.  
**


	2. Organization

**Woo! Two chapters in one day. I love writing... so much. lol**

Everything in the pipe systems had been flushed out and released from wherever it was stuck at. The weighted storage cubes, the dead turrets, the pieces of exploded matter, and even the Oracle turret were all escorted throughout various pipes that eventually led to one common location, which turned out to be nothing but a humungous room where it would be piled up like a landfill to be organized.

Eventually, the big mess would be cleared, everything sent to its desired location. The turrets would be sent to the Turret Redemption Lines, and weighted storage cubes could very well be recycled to once again serve in tests, and whatever was left would likely be incinerated.

The four cores had been utterly terrified when they'd started moving again- the last time they'd gone flying through a pipe, it was to a fiery death- but at the same time, they were also incredibly, unbelievably thankful that _something_ had happened to them. Morality and Anger were burning up, being the ones closest to the fire. Logic and Curiosity had been hot as well, to the point that it hurt, but it surely wasn't as bad as having the heat waves crash against you with nothing to block it.

And Curiosity was sure she could go insane. She didn't know how Morality could stand it. Listening to Anger's snarling and Logic's insane, creepy recipes _this long_ without saying a word was something Curiosity came to admire. She wasn't sure how long they'd been stuck in the tunnel, but she knew after awhile that it had surely been years. She was unable to process how they had even lasted that long.

She'd even feared the threat of simply falling apart once they'd started moving, and began screaming a few hundred feet along the way. Anger wasn't screaming, he was only snarling louder to "talk" above them all. Logic finally shut up and simply watched everything pass by them as they moved a couple hundred miles an hour, and Morality had actually given a sigh of utter relief when she was pulled away from the heat, but after that, she didn't seem phased.

They'd each landed on the large pile of junk when they'd reached their destination. Anger and Logic had rolled down in a similar direction, but Morality and Curiosity had clunked down the pile of stuff and found themselves alone on different sides of the room.

"Gahh!" Curiosity cried. "Where am I? Where did you guys go? What's going ooon?"

Suddenly, a robotic female voice filled the room. "The Enrichment Center wants to inform anything and everything in this room that if you are a robot or some artificial intelligence of any sort, then don't worry. You will be relocated to the appropriate place shortly." It sounded a little more like a pre-recorded message than actual communication with whoever was in charge.

"Relocated? What does that mean? And who are you?" But, the voice didn't answer. Instead, a long claw came out of the off-white wall and slowly approached Curiosity. "What is that? Is it dangerous?" The claw turned and clamped around Curiosity's outer shell, causing massive panic. _"Gahhh!_ Don't hurt me! Get it off!"

"Identified: Aperture Science Mk. IV Personality Core." said a loud, slightly robotic voice that seemed to come from the ceiling _and_ the claw at once. "Sending to the Defective Cores Storage Unit…"

"Where's that?" Curiosity persisted. "Will it hurt?"

"Negative." replied the voice as the claw slowly took her to one of the mass amount of tubes that connected to the room. "Goodbye." And with that, the claw threw her into the tube, and ignored her frightened screams upon being thrown down a new tube with no idea where she was going, and continued on with its work.

This was nothing new- Curiosity had just come from a tube exactly like this one- but it had happened again all too fast. And there was still the fear she couldn't help but feel. She was terrified that she was being sent to that awful inferno again. And this time, she was alone and no one could help her, even accidentally. And although riding in a huge tube that was twirling her around uncontrollably would otherwise be considered fun, she was beginning to feel very dizzy as well. Curiosity was so glad she didn't have a stomach to get sick or a mouth to throw up with, because riding in a giant tube with your own barf was _not_ a fun thought.

Still, with all this going through her head, not one question left her audio processor until she arrived at her destination. Because, even she was smart enough to know that her questions would go unanswered, therefore leaving her even more anxious. It was also simply easier to just stay silent until she came to a stop, which wasn't as soon as she'd thought. Soon, instead of being surrounded by some grayish blue light from the outside and seeing all the other tubes around her, the tube took her through a long, dark tunnel.

It was unusually cold in the darkness, and Curiosity felt as if she were blind, and of course, that scared her. This went on for awhile. Every now and then, she would get knocked up against the side by an oncoming object from a separate tube that intersected with hers. She actually began to feel _tired_ and it took all of her will power not to activate her sleep mode right here. She wouldn't risk it. She didn't know if she was going to die or not, but she would've preferred to know exactly where she was going before she slept, as opposed to waking up even more confused than ever- or dead, in which case, there would _be_ no waking up.

To her, it felt like over an hour before the tube finally came to an end and she saw light. This light wasn't red, thank heavens, but it still brought on a wave of fear. She gave a short scream as she prepared for the worst. And then, she was blinded for a moment as she smashed into the pile of defective cores, most of them deactivated. She tumbled down a bit until her backside was pushed up against the window, and looked around frantically as her vision returned to her.

She was in a big cage, and the light had been from the a simple lamp, which provided the only decent light she could see in her line of vision. She glanced around, immediately saw all the cores-

-and screamed as loud as she could.

She was still screaming when Rick broke in. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down there! There's nothin' to be scared of in here!" Curiosity had apparently heard him, so she stopped. Her eye continued to dart around wildly, but most of the time, she was looking at Rick, having been the first to speak to her in this cage.

"Fact: A new core has just landed in here with us, and will most likely pester us all." Fact said. Curiosity stared in him in disbelief. That was a _fact!_ …well, mostly.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking around.

"Well now, um…" Rick looked around. "Not sure what they call this here place. But, throwing location aside," Rick gave her his best '_charmin' the ladies'_ look. "might I say you're looking mighty nice today?"

"Why not?" Curiosity looked around, then back at Rick. "Who're you?"

"Why, my name's Rick! I'm an adventure sphere!" Rick proclaimed proudly.

"Rick? Adventure? Cool! What's an adventure?"

"You've never been on an adventure?" Rick seemed utterly shocked by this.

"Adventure? Are they scary?" Curiosity couldn't stop looking around.

"Can be." Rick said, "But, they're surefire fun! Are you _sure_ you've never been on an adventure?" Curiosity didn't answer him. She was too busy staring at everything else, not that there was much to stare at after a few moments. "What about the trip down here? I'll bet that was an adventure."

"How long is that tube?" Curiosity asked as she glanced up at the tube that had dropped her down.

"How would I know?"

"Fact: The tube is exactly two hundred Pico meters long." Fact stated.

"Really?" Curiosity asked, honestly unsure what that even meant.

"Whatever, Four-Eyes." Rick said, "You don't know what you're talkin' about!" Curiosity looked around a little more, then decided to talk with Fact.

"Who are _you?"_ she asked.

"I am the Fact core. The Fact core is the best and most handsome core." Fact replied. "Everyone loves the Fact core."

"Are you tired?" Curiosity continued. "Do you need a nap?"

"Nah, he just needs to implode." Rick replied.

"Implode? What is that?" Curiosity asked.

"Eh…" Rick looked around, then he changed the subject. "Speaking of imploding, at least that idiot Space core shut up for awhile."

"Imploding and space go together?" Curiosity persisted.

"Nope. I was just observing."

"Observing? Is it fun?"

"Erm, well, go ahead and try it and you can tell me."

"Um…" Curiosity looked around, not entirely sure how to "observe."

"Might I suggest observing me?" Rick said, "I'm a black belt at… pretty much everything."

"Fact: The Space core is in sleep mode, therefore he is quiet and our ears do not hurt." Fact said.

"You don't got any ears, dummy!" Rick said.

"What are ears?" Curiosity asked.

"Okay, I can't help but notice that you ask a lot of questions." Rick said. "To put it simply, the only thing you need to know is that I'm available, pretty lady- erm- core. Pretty _core." _Rick paused. "Wait, you _are_ a lady, right? Not a guy?"

"What's that?" Curiosity asked, forgetting about Rick and looking down at one of the many deactivated cores. "What is that?" She then turned to the wall, where there were some stains from… well, she'd never find out. Then, she turned to Space, who was just now blinking his eye open. "Who're _you?"_

Space stared at her for a moment, then his expression became excited and he twirled around giddily. "Space! Space, goin' to space!"

"Oh _great…"_ Rick muttered.

"Space?" Curiosity asked. "What's that?"

"Space!" Space replied simply.

"Space? Is that an object?" Curiosity turned her eye within her shell- the equivalent of a human tilting their head- to look at him, for he was turned at an odd angle that he couldn't really help.

"Space is big! It's humungous! And there's stars everywhere! And… and the sun! I'm gonna meet the sun." Space explained enthusiastically.

"The sun?"

"The sun is my friend." Space didn't have a mouth, but Curiosity knew he was smiling inside, just by the way his eye looked.

"Where is space?" Curiosity asked.

"Space is up there!" Space glanced up at the ceiling. "Wayyy up there!"

Curiosity merely thought he was talking about the surface. "How will you get there?"

"Rockets! Rockets to go to space! And the space cops will help. Space cops are my friends."

"Space cops?"

"Space cops in space."

"What else is in space?"

"Atmosphere… b-black holes, astronauts, nebulas." Space was getting so riled up that he was stuttering. "J-J-Jupiter, the Big Dipper!"

"The Big Dipper?"

"THE BIG DIPPER!"

"Oh, will you SHUT UP?" Rick shouted.

"Nope!" Curiosity replied happily.

"Ugh…"

Soon, they were hearing some odd sounds coming from the tube opening above them, and then the telltale banging. And after a few more seconds, a core with a red eye and a core with a dark blue eye dropped out of the tube and tumbled off into the corner.

"Ooh! You guys made it! Hi!" Curiosity said happily.

"Arrghhayagattaaghagah!" Anger yelled incoherently.

"Really? Wow, that must've been scary! Was it?" Curiosity sounded as if actually making conversation with him.

"_Kaachgahata!"_

"Me too!"

"Waitwaitwait-" Rick interjected. "You _understand_ all that?"

"Let's make… bagels…" Logic muttered.

"Bagels?" Rick asked. "Why bagels?"

"Fish shaped… _toxic_ bagels…" Logic added.

"Well, that's the most retarded thing I've ever heard."

"Why are you always talking about food?" Curiosity asked Logic.

"_Grayafagheyaaaghkkghl!"_ Anger snarled.

"No, actually, _that_ is the most retarded thing I've ever heard." Rick said. Anger barked at him. "What? _What_ are you barkin' and snarlin' about?"

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Curiosity asked him.

"Good at what?" Rick asked.

"Fact: Trees were invented in the early 1600s by mutant cats." Fact stated.

"Are you kidding?" Rick said.

"Hey you! What's your favorite thing about space?" Space asked Anger.

"_Dkghhsklahlhalfhkhl!"_ was his reply.

"You know what my favorite thing is?" Space asked, ignoring Anger as he continued to snarl and growl. Then, he screamed, _"SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!"_ All the cores shuddered from piercing noise, and once he was finished, everyone was silent, and Anger was whimpering in the corner.

"Whoa, man. You made the red guy wanna pee himself!" Rick said. "You now have… eh… one percent of my respect."

"Yayyy!" Space cheered. "Gotta go to space. Yeah, gotta to go space!"

"Again with the space?" Rick complained.

Curiosity looked at Space and tilted her head with interest. "Hey, is space fun?"

"Space! Space, Ilovespace." Space replied.

Curiosity giggled. "I know."

"Space is fun. Space is the best place ever!"

"It is?"

"It IS!"

"Space sounds fun! I wanna go to space!"

"Going to space. Goingto_space."_

"Listen. Carefully." Rick said, "You're never going to space!"

"I am going to space." Space countered unintentionally. Just as he said this, the last core that they would be meeting up with for awhile came falling out of the chute. She landed with a soft _clank_ against some of the deactivated cores, and moved her optic slowly to look at everyone else.

"Ooh, good. Now, we're all together again!" Curiosity said with glee.

"And who might _you_ be?" Rick asked Morality. She gazed at him for a few seconds, before looking away. "Oh, I see. The silent type."

"Space." Space said idly.

"Is it loud in space, or silent?" Curiosity asked.

"Space has a lot of space." Space replied.

"Fact: You are an imbecile." Fact told Space.

"I'm the best- I'm the best at space."

"Ugh… guess I'd better get used to livin' in an asylum…" Rick said with a sigh.

**Sooo... yeah. The first few chapters will probably be about as boring as this one. lol Except the next one will have explosions. Yay! xD**


	3. Explosion Day

There was a distant explosion.

"Happy Explosion Day, ya dumb apes…" Rick announced.

"Does that mean we're going to space?" Space asked eagerly. "Space? Space, space…"

"NO! Just shut up!" Rick replied. The ground shook. There was that distant explosion again.

Curiosity took note of these unusual sounds and vibrations. "What's going on?"

"Don't know. Probably somethin' to do with that Moron core takin' over." Rick said.

"Moron core?"

"Didn't ya hear him? He broadcasted his new status to the entire facility not two hours ago."

"I don't think I heard it. Was I asleep?"

"Maybe." Rick put on his flirting face. "But, I'll tell ya one thing: you look very pretty when you sleep." Curiosity gazed away, unsure of what to think of such a comment.

"Space is pretty." Space said.

"No, it ain't. There's nothin' to look at in space." Rick argued.

"Have _you_ ever been to space?" Curiosity asked.

"Nope, but it sounds like a load of B-O-R-D-O-M." Rick replied.

"Fact: Your spelling is approximately as bad as a fifth grader's." Fact stated.

"What are you talkin' about? I spelled it perfectly!" Rick protested.

"Jupiter is three times larger than a peanut." Rick shook his head in annoyance.

"Man, I wish I had hands." he said. "So I could smack the crap out of you."

Curiosity was startled by a nearby explosion. "Are we in danger?"

"Whoa! That one was close, wasn't it?" Rick said.

"Are we going to catch on fire?"

"Hopefully not. Not until I'm outta here, anyway."

"We can go to space. Space will save us all!" Space said. Rick didn't bother to try and silence him this time, although he was unsure why. Possibly because all of his other attempts had failed. But, it may also have been because most of the times, Curiosity got on him about insulting Space's dreams because she was just as curious about it as Space was obsessed with it.

"Space? Could we escape to space and not catch on fire?" Curiosity asked.

"Yes, space. Going to space. Gonna go to space." Space said.

"What's the best thing about space?" Curiosity often asked him this question, but the reason it was brought up so frequently was because she often got different answers. She was always curious as to what his answer would be. This time, Space's answer was,

"I'm the best at space!"

Curiosity squealed a bit in delight. Ever since she and the other three cores had fallen into this big cage, she'd been surrounded by six functioning cores. But, Space was the one who'd really caught her attention. She wasn't even sure why. Fact had all the answers in the world, and Rick seemed to be the most sane one here, besides maybe Morality. But, Space had provided her with something to be constantly curious about, and there was nothing she loved more than discussing something that sparked so much inquisitiveness from her.

Fact's "facts" hardly ever made sense to her, even when he was attempting to answer one of her questions. She somehow always knew what Anger and Morality were thinking- probably from being around them for longer than she could remember- but they still didn't have much to say. Curiosity would never have a decent conversation with creepy, cake-obsessed Logic core, and that left Rick and Space. Rick seemed to hate Space and Fact with a passion, and he wasn't really warming up to Anger either. He even snapped at Curiosity if he thought she was asking too many questions at once.

Space was never hostile, never creepy, and never bored.

He _never_ got bored of talking about space, and Curiosity never got bored of asking about it. She soon came to know her everyday life as waking up in the exact same position and talking all day with Space. He was her friend. And soon, the question came into her head as Space was rambling.

"Space is the best. Space is my friend. I love space. I'm gonna go to space. Space, space, ba ba bababa, ba ba…"

"Space?" Curiosity asked him rather loudly.

"Space!" Space replied, as that was his normal answer to that question. But, that hadn't been what she meant. Yes, it had been a question. But, this time, she expected his full attention. And she knew that was a lot to ask from him, especially for her, being the silly, eager, has-a-short-attention-span Curiosity core. But, regardless, she was trying, for once, to get his mind off of space for a moment.

"Space, are you my friend?" The words left her audio processors quick and clear.

Space looked at her momentarily.

"Space?" he asked. He knew that was wrong when she shook her head. He wracked his brain for the answer. What could it be, if not _space? _But, there must've been something else. He played the question in his head again.

"_Space, are you my friend?"_ He realized he'd heard it wrong. _He_ was Space. She wasn't talking about the space he loved so much, she was referring to _him, _the Space core.

"Are you?" Curiosity persisted, noticing his pause to think. Rick stared at Space in utter astonishment.

Space core was actually _thinking_ about something! And it wasn't space!

Rick twirled around happily. "Good job-" he started to say, but when he heard Anger snarl at him, he silenced. Normally, he would've yelled at him, but he knew that timing hadn't been a coincidence. Curiosity wanted everyone to leave them alone for this. And Space needed the silence to think. Anything they said could remind him of space and send him into another rant.

Space looked around for a moment, and nodded his head yes. "You're my friend in space!"

"I am?" Curiosity asked eagerly.

"Yep, we're astronauts. Astronauts are friends in space." Curiosity danced in her shell and allowed Space to gradually rant harder about space. "Space is big. Room for lots of astronauts. And stars. I'm gonna see the stars." Curiosity didn't stop him. That was all she needed. She had a genuine friend! Sure, he rambled a lot and he was simple-minded, but so was she. Anger, Logic, and Morality had all been with her from the start, but that- that, and nearly dying the same fiery death together- made them feel more like family to her. She didn't know what a family was or what it felt like, but she knew that the feeling she got when she was with them was different than the feeling she got when she talked with Space. She knew that she'd never felt that way before.

And she _loved_ it!

She was still having her little victory party when Rick broke in. "Eh, don't mean to interrupt y'all, but it appears we have a situation."

"A situation?" Curiosity asked. Rick nodded towards the window, where they could see a small fire starting up near the doorway leading out of the room. Curiosity gasped. _"Ahhh!_ Is that _fire?_ Are we gonna die?"

"Ohno… ohno ohno ohno ohno ohno…" Space said, taking a breath in between each word.

"Not to worry, guys." Rick said calmly, "I'll take care of it."

"Fact: We are all going to perish." Fact said.

"Nobody asked you!" Suddenly, a very loud explosion came from right above them. The entire floor gave a violent _lurch_ and it felt like an earthquake. All of the cores yelled out their reactions, most of them being gasps, groans, and one being a quick, high-pitched,

"_Space!"_

Curiosity was knocked from the spot she'd grown to know so well. She literally flew up into the air and then smacked into Space, knocking them both to the side a few inches. Rick tumbled down near Fact.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine!" Rick insisted. Anger and Morality were thrown into the same corner, where Anger began whimpering like a dog out of fear. When the shaking finished, everyone gazed around silently. "Is everyone alright? Do I need to save anyone's life?"

"How would you do that?" Curiosity asked. "You can't move!"

"Neither can _you,_ sweetheart." Curiosity looked at Space worriedly. Space's eye was darting around hastily, looking for the cause of the explosions. After a few seconds, a few of the cores sighed in relief. And then-

_-BOOOOOOM!_

"Gah! What is going on up there?" Rick yelled as the room shook for a few moments. "Hello! Cores trying to have a normal, _not-deadly_ day down here, thank you very much!"

"Fact: Cell phones are 56% more deadly than bombs." Fact said.

"Do you wanna know who cares?" Rick replied, "Absolutely no one. At all."

"Space! Gotta go to space." Space started. "Need a rocket ship to go to space!"

"W-what if we blow up?" Curiosity asked. As if in response, the cores heard a series of smaller explosions erupting from the ceiling. This startled Curiosity, but most of the other cores didn't seem to care for them since they had been so much quieter than the previous ones. Granted, they were still loud, but they sounded distant even though they were right above their heads.

Then, everything went quiet.

It seemed like forever before another sound was made, and it wasn't an explosion or a fire. Anger was beginning to recover from his shock and look around while making some soft whining noises. Rick glared over at the fire, which didn't seem to be spreading too rapidly, but it was definitely getting higher. Curiosity was still feeling fairly uneasy, so when Space started talking again, she let herself sink into his little world. It was better than listening to all the explosions and focusing on the fire.

"Goingtospace, yeah. Yep, I'm going to space. SPACE, trial, put the system on trial, in space, on trial, GUILTY… I love being in space! Space, wanna go to space. Spacespace, yes, please, space." Curiosity just stayed silent and listened. "Oh! I know. I know, wait, I know. I know I know I know I know I know I know… le-let'sgotospace!"

"Don't you ever get tired of-" Rick began, but Curiosity glared at him. To most people, the space talk would be considered very annoying. Specifically to Rick, it was _seriously_ getting old. But, Curiosity was the type of core that understood endless- and sometimes incoherent- rambling better than sane, descriptive sentences. And with the only thing to compare Space's words to being the explosions in the background, it only soothed her. And that, she realized, was exactly why she loved listening to him so much.

That was also when the claw started letting out static as it moved above them. It hadn't moved since she and the other cores had arrived in the cage, but she hoped perhaps it was normal. But, by the surprised look on Rick's face, it didn't seem to have a history of moving. The claw opened up wide, and started to descend, getting closer and closer to them. Curiosity tried to shrink away from it, but she couldn't move. She just wanted to disappear and get away from this place.

The only problem was that her mind didn't know any safe place to go, limbs or no limbs. Come to think of it, what _were_ limbs? And why did this matter when a giant claw was about to snatch her up off the pile of cores and possibly kill her?

Curiosity shut her eye and looked away as the claw approached them, but while she heard it clamp gently over a core, she didn't feel it. She opened her eye and discovered that the claw had chosen to grab Space instead of her, and was already picking him up and taking him up away from her.

"Space?" Curiously shouted.

"Space!" Space said excitedly. "Gotta go to space!"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to space!" Curiosity looked around frantically. Rick and Fact were watching as the claw pulled him above the ceiling they knew and started to take him down a corridor that they'd never noticed before. They didn't seem to know what to say or think. Curiosity wasn't able to see how Anger, Logic, and Morality were reacting, but at this point she didn't care. There had to be something she could ask Space to sooth her nerves. To keep her from going insane once he left her sight. Then, after a few split-seconds, she had it.

"You're coming back, right?" she asked desperately. Space was looking around restlessly, taking in his surroundings. But, before he was nearly out of her sight, he looked right at her. The look in her eye was unmistakable.

"I'll be back." he said quickly, feeling unnatural just from taking his focus off of space for even one second. "And then we'll go to space!"

"We will?" Curiosity persisted.

"Spaaaace!" Space replied as the claw carried him down the corridor to who-knows-where. Curiosity became silent as the glow from his eye faded down the corridor. All the cores were silent for awhile, and there were no background noises to interrupt their silence. They didn't know if being taken up out of here by that giant claw would be a good thing or a bad thing for the core that got snatched up, but they decided to go with fearing what they didn't know.

It was quiet for awhile. Then, eventually, they heard another round of quiet serial explosions, and the claw returned. Anger started growling at it, knowing that it was apparently here to take from the cage, and he wasn't up for another mysterious trip. Logic had been silent for awhile now.

"Where's Fish-Cake core?" Curiosity asked.

"So, that's what you call him?" Rick replied, gazing over to where Logic was sitting with his eye shut. "I think he's asleep." Curiosity watched as the claw hovered over her like an alien space ship getting ready to beam up its next victim. "HEY! Wake up, you lazy bum! You're missin' Explosion Day!" Logic didn't respond. Perhaps he _was_ asleep. But, Curiosity didn't focus on that. Instead, she gave a high-pitched squeal as the claw shot down and clamped around Rick. "WHOA! Hey! Now, you put me down, ya hear?"

"Where is it taking him?" Curiosity asked herself. "Is it going to take all of us?"

"I'll give you a fair warning: I'm an adventure sphere!" Rick told the claw. "I was _designed_ to take on knuckleheads like you! Now, put me down so I don't have to beat ya!" The claw didn't seem phased by this, and proceeded to take Rick down the corridor. "Eh… don't worry, folks! I've got this under control! I'll see what's goin' on out there."

"Fact: It is more likely that the Adventure Sphere is going to die." Fact said.

"I heard that!" Rick yelled. And then, once again, there was silence, aside from Anger's growling and the fire, which was now so big that you could hear it crackle in this sort of quietness. Soon, there was another series of explosions before the claw returned.

_Ohno! Ohno ohno it's gonna grab me next! What am I gonna do what am I gonna do?_ Curiosity thought frantically.

But, instead of grabbing her like she was so sure it would, it hovered over Fact for a few moments, and then shot down and snatched him off the ground. Curiosity watched as it carried him above her and into the corridor as he gave one last sentence of farewell.

"Whales are twice is intelligent and three times as delicious as humans." he said matter-of-factly before all Curiosity could see of him was the pink glow from his eye.

"What kind of fact is that?" she asked no one in particular.

"Three eggs… two cups… of baking soda… one gallon of mashed peas…" Logic mumbled in his monotonous voice. So, now, he was awake. But it was still quiet and lonely now. Anger wasn't even snarling anymore, and Curiosity assumed he was being quiet out of fear that the claw would pick him up next when it returned. Curiosity expected the next series of small explosions to come soon, but they never did. It was a long, anxious wait until the claw returned, but this time, it didn't seek out another core. The four of them that were left cowered in fear, each waiting for the claw to pick them up. But after it came back into the room, it stayed still, like it had never moved at all.

They were all startled when they heard the single loud explosion erupt from the ceiling. It was quick, and then the room was silent again. But, not a minute later, something started to shake the room lightly. They heard some banging up above, and that persisted along with the shaking for a few minutes. Somewhere along this course of time, the lamp above them flickered on and off, which scared Curiosity a bit. After a few more moments, the lamp was yanked up against the ceiling.

Sparks flew from it as it smashed into the ceiling. The cores knew that a wire had surely been pulled accidentally, but they also knew that there was nothing they could do to fix it. The lamp flickered for a few more seconds, before going completely black, leaving them all in darkness.

That was it.

Curiosity screamed the loudest she had since the last time she'd gone flying through the chute that dropped her here. She _knew_ something was wrong. She didn't know why, but she knew she had reasons to scream, and nobody protested against it.

"What's happening? Are we dead?" Curiosity shrieked. "Somebody turn the lights back on!" She didn't want to be left in darkness for the rest of her life. And once again, she felt like there was something missing from her mind, because the ideal place for her right now certainly wasn't here, but she didn't know where it would be. Nothing she thought of brought her joy or made her want to calm down. Everything she thought of actually just made her want to scream again.

In her fit, she hadn't noticed that the shaking had ceased.

Her audio processors made the sound of panting as she tried to calm herself down. A low growl came from Anger and he kept it going for a long time. Logic had stopped talking once Curiosity had started screaming. After she stopped screaming, however, she felt light-headed. And then, she knew all this freaking out wasn't good for her. She'd never felt this way before, and she _didn't_ like it.

"Curiosity," said a smooth, female voice, "you need to calm yourself."

"W…what if… we…?" Curiosity began.

"Please, just don't think about it." Curiosity said nothing, and shut her eye. Morality _never_ talked to the other cores. She didn't have the need to, because the other cores could easily read her expressions. The only time she ever made a sound was when her emotions were so intense that she simply _had_ to let them out- such as, in a situation where she was being thrown to her death- or in a situation like this, where Curiosity had no way of knowing that Morality was even paying attention to her, let alone what she wanted to tell her.

Curiosity knew that taking Morality's advice was a good idea. She wouldn't think about anything. No explosions, no scary claws, not even the darkness. After a few moments, she knew that her thoughts would wander in that direction soon. So, she decided to finally allow herself some rest for today. It would be good for her. So, before her mind had a chance to wander off into unwanted zones, Curiosity shut her optic lenses, turned herself into a comfortable position in her shell-

-and drifted off into sleep mode.

**Gahhh it's so hard to write these characters without screwing them up. **


	4. Aftermath

**Yesh. Guhhh I would've had this up sooner, but my brain needed help thinking. **

"_SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!"_

It was everything he'd ever dreamed of and more. Stars everywhere; the sun, right there in his line of sight, ready for conversation; the zero gravity that allowed him to twirl around in mid air and never fall. He didn't care- or know- that there was no sound in space. He was so happy, he could care less if anyone bothered to listen. After all, he'd never cared where his voice found itself before, and he could hear it perfectly fine- due to his Aperture-equipped emergency radio system, which he was abusing happily- so he was all good.

"Ooh, play it cool, play it cool. Here come the space cops. Here come the space cops." he stuttered. "Space, I love space. Orbit, space orbit, in my space suit." Space glanced over where he saw the huge ball of gas that was the sun. "Ooh! The sun! I-I'm gonna meet the sun!" He looked around nervously. "What do I say? Um… h-hi, sun."

"What do you see over there?" Wheatley hollered from a few meters away. "Cuz, um, the only thing I can see is… well, space."

"SPAAAAACE!" Space screamed, interrupting Wheatley's puny little pronunciation of the word "space."

"Yes, right, well…" Wheatley tried to look over at Space, but it was hard with the zero gravity and all.

"There's a star. There's another one. Star. Star. Star. Star. Star. Star."

"Okay, that's nice. I see em', too. But, um… tell me, can you see the Earth?"

"Space." Space replied gleefully.

"I _know_ that, mate. You've repeated it about thirty times already." In response, Space started humming to himself. "Oh dear… this, this is… _really_ bad."

"Ooh, I know!_ Spell it!_ Space: S-P-AAACE! Space."

"Um… Mister erm… Space… guy, I think we're… I think we're _stuck." _As Wheatley said this, he felt a twinge of horror. Being stuck in space forever? There were lots of ways he remembered planning to spend his life, but this- this wasn't one of them.

"I love you, space." Space continued.

"Yeah, right. Sure, mate." Wheatley said.

"Where am I? Guess. Guess guess guess."

"Um… well, you're-"

"I'm in space."

Wheatley sighed. "I know…" He watched a screen shut down as it floated by and he recognized it as being from Aperture.

"So much space. Need to see it all!" Space said, before letting out some excited breathing of some sort.

"I wish I could take it all back." Wheatley said, staring off into nothingness and nodding. "I honestly do. I honestly do wish I could take it all back." He shook his head softly. "And _not_ just cuz I'm stranded in space."

"I'm in space." Space said as he drifted by.

"I know you are, mate!" Wheatley said to him. Then, he added with a hint of sadness, "Yep… we're both in space."

He heard a very excited, "Spaaaaaace!" come from behind him.

"Anyway…" Wheatley continued, ignoring Space. "Ya know, if _was_ ever to see her again, do you know what I'd say?"

"I'm in space."

"I'd say… I'm sorry! Sincerely. I am sorry I was bossy, and monstrous, and… I am genuinely sorry."

"I'm in space."

* * *

Fact had been lucky enough not to fly through the portal before it closed, and had simply slammed onto the floor after he was yanked from the connector ports on Wheatley's body.

"Fact: Kangaroos are extinct in 37 different countries." he muttered with his face on the floor. Chell was lying unconscious a few feet away. GLaDOS gazed over at the pink-eyed core.

"Oh. That one managed not to get thrown into space." she observed as Atlas and P-Body lifted Chell gently off the ground. "Hm…" A long metal claw came out of the circular opening underneath her. It grabbed one of Fact's handles and turned him around to face her.

"Pigs do not sweat, therefore, the saying 'sweating like a pig' makes no sense." Fact stated.

"Orange, come over here." GLaDOS commanded. P-Body chirped curiously, nodded towards Atlas, and walked up to GLaDOS. "What should I do with this core?"

P-Body glanced back at Atlas for a moment, waiting for an answer. Atlas attempted to shrug without dropping Chell on her face. P-Body was unsure what to think. In truth, she didn't really think GLaDOS cared for any opinion other than her own. It was quite out of her character to ask for a second opinion… unless she already knew what she was going to do and she had asked merely for the sinister effect, if what she planned to do was going to be bad for Fact. P-Body turned back to GLaDOS and chirped a few times at her. GLaDOS turned back towards Fact.

"Well… you _did_ help… in your own, unpremeditated way." she said to Fact, who didn't seem to notice that his fate depended on her decision.

"The Fact sphere is the most helpful sphere. The Fact sphere should be praised for its amazing contribution to saving the facility." Fact droned on.

"I never said _that."_ GLaDOS began.

"There is no oxygen in Arkansas." Fact said, retracting back into his own little world.

GLaDOS nodded. "Oh, right. It's corrupt." P-Body looked up at her quizzically, waiting for a command. "Hmmm… perhaps I _could_ make some use of you." She paused, then added, "Provided we take care of that 'corruption' business. It's really getting annoying." GLaDOS then turned to P-Body. "Go ahead and assist Blue. I'll take it from here." P-Body hopped up and down eagerly and ran to help Atlas carry Chell to a safe spot.

Fact looked up at GLaDOS. "Fact: I have preformed amazing feats today, therefore, I deserve an amazing new name to suit my remarkableness."

"You want a _name?"_ GLaDOS asked.

"Such as in, the Adventure Sphere is called 'Rick' and the Intelligence Dampening Sphere is called 'Moron.'" GLaDOS laughed at the fact that he'd somehow perceived Wheatley's name to be 'moron.'

"Hahaha… very well. Your name is…" GLaDOS thought it over for a short moment, because although she was feeling oddly generous today- possibly from the part of her brain that was thankful to be back in control, thankful to be _alive-_ she didn't really care what the Fact core called himself. "Craig." she decided.

"Craig." Fact repeated. "The Fact core likes this name. From now on, others shall refer to the Fact core as 'Craig.'"

* * *

It was deathly quiet.

And dark. It was really dark. Curiosity opened her eye and gazed around for a moment. _Why was everything so dark?_ Then, the events of the day came rushing back to her, and she wondered if it was even the same day or if she'd slept through it all. She suddenly turned herself around frantically, looking for any source of light. The only thing she saw was a doorway with a very dim light coming through it, and the remaining embers from the fire, which were dying fast.

"W…" She stopped as if choked, and waited for… well, she didn't know _what_ she was waiting for. Then, all at once, the questions came flooding out of her. "Where are we? What are we going to do next? Is anyone there? Hello? _Hello?"_

"Rhubarb." Logic said from somewhere in the darkness.

"Fish-Cake!" Curiosity cried, relief in her voice, "Are you okay?" Logic muttered something about olive oil, but it was barely audible from where she was.

"Chhjjl…" Anger growled.

"Oh! You're awake." Curiosity said happily. "What do you think? Are we going to live?" She heard a soft whimper in response. "Oh…" She gazed up at the ceiling. She was awake, and now that she was awake, she was ready to get out of here and figure out what all the explosions from earlier had been about. Sitting around in a pitch black room all day could get pretty boring fast. There was nothing to see, and therefore, nothing to ask questions about.

Well, there were a few specific questions on her mind. Like, what happened? Was she going to be stuck in here forever? Is there something she should know? Where was Fact core? And Rick? And _Space?_ And when were the lights going to turn on?

Okay, a lot of questions, but none of them regarding anything she could see. So once it was determined that none of those questions would likely be answered, her life would get boring quickly if she stayed there for awhile. There was only one question she actually found the need to ask, though, even if nobody would answer it. So, she turned her head up to the ceiling and asked nobody in particular,

"How long am I going to be kept in the dark?"

* * *

For Rick, a personality core going to space had seemed like the most impossible thought in the world. Because, honestly, how on _in the world_ would you-

-oh, right.

But, before then, he'd never imagined that Space core would ever make it to space. They'd been stuck in a cage full of corrupted cores after all. And who gets to space from there, unless- he once again had to remind himself that this _had_ happened- someone took him out of his cage and sent him to space? And even then, he never imagined it would happen like this. He never imagined- even if he'd believed for one second that Space would get there- that _he_ would end up in space.

There was no way, no how, he was going to space, nor had he planned to. But, somehow, in the end, Space had been the only one to get what he wanted- unless you counted Chell and GLaDOS, but he had no knowledge of that- and he wasn't sure what he liked more. Being stuck in a cage with Space and Fact or drifting around in space with really no way to control what you looked at. On top of that, he almost couldn't believe it. Even after a few hours, the thought still hadn't sunk in yet.

He was in space.

He was only glad he wasn't close enough to Space- or, the general area of space that he was drifting in- to hear him rant so clearly. Every once in awhile, he would hear Wheatley going on about something, although it was hard to understand. Sometimes, he would hear Space talking if he got close enough. And of course, no matter how far away Space was from him, Rick always heard his loud screams of 'Spa-

"SPAAAAAACE!"

Rick rolled his eye. "Speak of the devil." he muttered. "Quiet over there! I'm tryin' to think!"

"Space." Space's voice, barely audible now, returned to its usual volume as he continued to talk about space. "I'm in space."

"Better." Rick looked around, gathering his thoughts. "Now, eh… where was I?" After trying to resume his deep thinking for a few moments, he attempted to turn towards Space, but he wasn't very successful in doing so. "Aw man, ya broke my concentration!"

"Oh, you too?" Wheatley hollered. "Nice. I thought I was the only one."

"Nope, not in the least." Rick replied.

"That's a relief. At least I'm not alone in that circle."

"Hey…" Rick paused to think for a moment. "Aren't you the guy who screwed everything up?"

"Um…" Wheatley said. "Well, I…uh… yes, but-"

"Ha! What came over you, anyway?" Rick sounded amused. "Sounded like you really had it out for that pretty lady you were fightin' with."

"No, I- well, yes, but… I- you see, it's like-"

"Like what? Like, you just went absolutely crazy and tried to kill her?"

"Well, it… it _does _sound harsh when you put it that way. Um, but, I was- it wasn't entirely my fault. The main frame, it's… it's quite the itchy old thing, if- if I can make that observation. Got a- a real _drive_, if you know what I mean."

"Mmm…" Rick thought about it as he continued. "No. I don't."

"Figured you wouldn't." Wheatley said quietly. "Guess you gotta have experience um… in the body."

"Spaaaaace!" Space yelled from far behind Wheatley.

"Oh, believe me," Rick said with a smug look, "I've got experience with that kind of stuff, if ya know what I mean."

"Eh… didn't need to know that, mate." Wheatley told him.

"Just keepin' it real." Rick said casually. Wheatley sighed as he heard Space observing the stars aloud again.

* * *

Hours passed, and the four leftover cores were still sitting in the dark. By now, all the fires had been put out and everything was virtually back to normal. GLaDOS had fixed up her lair first so it would be a more welcoming sight to Chell when she woke up. Once Chell had actually woken up, she'd seen Atlas and P-Body looking at her excitedly, and then GLaDOS, ready to greet her with- for the first time- kindness.

The first thing GLaDOS had noticed while cleaning up her lair was Fact sitting on the floor. Somehow, his proclamation that he'd played a huge role in her successful plan and the sight of P-Body, standing there and stepping nervously from one foot to the other, had given her a very brilliant idea. And so, she'd handed Fact- or Craig, as he'd decided to start calling himself- to Atlas later on and commanded him to put him in a safe, undisturbed place until she had taken care of Chell.

Once GLaDOS had released Chell from the facility, she'd immediately began cleaning up the facility yet again, no longer mad at Chell, but wishing she could have her cold, hard revenge on Wheatley. And that was when she'd decided to check into the Defective Cores Storage Unit room.

_To check and see if the ceiling caved in on it._ She'd thought with both disgust and amusement. The tiny camera moved around to have a look at the room. Curiosity was gazing around lazily, looking for something that would interest her at all. Logic wasn't really moving at all, and Morality and Anger were buried in the back somewhere, out of her camera's line of sight.

"Why am I so bored?" Curiosity asked aloud.

Suddenly, the room was filled with a loud, clear voice. "Well, what do you know?"

"Who said that?" Curiosity asked, startled. She looked around frantically, but she couldn't locate the source of the strange voice. Anger tried desperately to move from his uncomfortable position, and only ended up falling on his side, which brought on some angry snarls.

"Two shredded radishes…" Logic murmured.

"Chhkkarlm!" Anger growled.

"Camera?" Curiosity asked, looking out the window in the general direction of the doorway, which was the only thing that told her where the window _was. _And indeed, she caught sight of a tiny red light in the corner near the ceiling, staring right at them. It moved slightly as the voice returned.

"I never thought I'd see the day that my four cores would be alive and sitting in the Defective Cores Storage Unit, probably because I thought you were all dead in the incinerator." There was a long pause. "Hm, well, welcome back."

"Who are you?" Curiosity asked the camera.

"I can't help but notice you've been left in darkness, though." The camera's voice continued, ignoring her question. Curiously suddenly recognized the voice as the one that had mentioned "relocation" before she had been thrown into the tube that lead her here. "That must be agonizing. Let me fix that." And right after she said that, some lights on the ceiling flickered on. "There. Now that you can see a little better, I suppose I should let you know: I don't really require you to fulfill the same purposes you did before you were thrown into the incinerator chute, despite my protests."

That sent a chill of fear through Curiosity. What did that mean? Was this camera lady going to throw them all back into the fires of doom? Or… or maybe she wouldn't send them down there, but she would leave them in this cage forever to be forgotten and lonely. These thoughts terrified her. She didn't want to die, and she didn't want to be stuck in this cage forever.

"W-what? But…" Curiosity began.

"However," the voice interrupted, "I do have a new purpose for you to fulfill. And I assure you, you will enjoy it." This relieved Curiosity a little, but she was still nervous.

"Will it involve cake?" Logic asked.

"No." the voice replied simply.

**Sorry for the bunches of time/location breaks, but...yeah, this chapter's full of em. xD**


	5. Correcting the Corrupted

**I am actually quite satisfied with this chapter. 8D Although, sorry for the give-away later. Heh... I suppose you've probably already guessed it though. I don't know about you people, but I love my limbs. lol**

Curiosity shrieked as the claw came down and grabbed her. She panicked for a few moments, and then stopped. The claw slowly started to pull her down the corridor where she'd seen Space, Rick, and Fact go. She gave a sigh of relief. Now, she would know where they'd went! And, as an added bonus, she knew it was safe because those three had gone through the corridor before her. She paused, replayed that in her head. _Fact, Rick, and Space went in there earlier…_

…and they never came back.

Curiosity started to panic again. "Where are you taking me? Why is it so dark in here?"

"Relax, my Curiosity core." GLaDOS replied. "You aren't in any danger." Curiosity gave a startled gasp as the claw jerked her up to change direction when the corridor changed from going _forward_ to going straight _up._

"Oh. I'm not? Well, then, where am I going?" GLaDOS didn't answer her. It had only been a minute or so before the claw emerged from the corridor and was carrying her into GLaDOS's chamber. Curiosity stared at the floor, which now seemed very far below her. Then, she gazed up and saw _her._

"Hello again." she greeted, happy to see her Curiosity core face-to-face (sort of) after so long.

Curiosity hesitated. "Hi." The claw stopped abruptly, leaving Curiosity dangling from it. When she looked down, she could barely see a robot with a bright, blue eye, staring up at her.

"Please don't scream." GLaDOS said, before commanding the claw to open up and drop her. Curiosity began to scream, but then she cut herself off. And in no time at all, she'd landed in the blue-eyed robot's arms and looked around, trying to take everything in all at once. The claw now looked incredibly tiny from down here, and the robot had grown… _a lot._

"Who are you?" Curiosity asked him. Atlas responded with a few low chirps, barely audible unless you listened carefully. "What language is that?"

"Blue, set that core down-" As Atlas prepared to put Curiosity down, she added, _"-gently." _And so, Atlas did just that. "Now, prepare to catch the next one." Atlas nodded as the claw quickly retracted into the corridor, which Curiosity could barely see from her point of view, and went to get the other cores.

When the claw returned to the cage, it started to head down towards Logic, who didn't seem to care at all what was happening around him. He was turning his head around lazily when the claw approached him. The claw clamped around his shell and pulled him roughly out of the pile of corrupted cores.

"Fish-shaped dirt…" muttered Logic as the claw started to pull him down the same corridor. He was still listing random fish-shaped objects to be put in his favorite cake when the claw pulled him out the other end. GLaDOS narrowed her eye at the core, who was so tiny compared to her.

"Hello, Intelligence core." she greeted.

"Marshmallows…" Logic replied.

"Right…" And with that, the claw dropped him, and he listed various screwed up cake ingredients the whole way down. When Atlas caught him, he nearly dropped him. He tossed Logic up into the air and surely, any standing bystander would think he were playing a game of Hot Potato with himself. Curiosity giggled as Atlas finally seemed to be satisfied with his grip on Logic and set him down next to her.

"Hi!" Curiosity said.

"Two cups… of milk…" he replied.

The claw returned to the cage a third time to collect the next core. As it descended, however, the pile of cores made it more difficult to see. GLaDOS had to sort of guess, from her camera's point of view, where the other two cores were. Anger started growling as the claw came down near him and Morality, but he stopped when it clamped around the core near them and pulled it up to the ceiling.

"Oops. Wrong one." GLaDOS said, dropping the core, which nearly landed on top of Anger and Morality. The claw straightened itself and descended again. This time, the claw stopped above Anger as he started snarling viciously at it, obviously protesting against being touched. The claw ignored his snarls and clamped around him, and his snarls became whimpers of fear.

He had fallen silent by the time the claw was hanging above Atlas, and he stayed silent until Atlas caught him. Then, he broke out in more angry snarls now that he knew he wasn't in a place anywhere near the incinerator. This startled Atlas and he dropped Anger on the floor. Anger rolled over against his handles when he landed, still growling at Atlas.

The trip to get Morality was probably the quickest and easiest. The claw came down, picked her up, and brought her into GLaDOs's chamber without any difficulty and with no protests- or words at all- from Morality. She didn't even move her eye very much when the claw dropped her down. When Atlas caught her, she simply gazed up at him, made eye contact for a few short seconds, then turned back down to Curiosity, Anger, and Logic. Atlas set her gently on the floor next to Curiosity.

"How are you doing?" Curiosity asked her. She barely moved her pupil at all. "Hehe, that's good." After another pause, she looked up at GLaDOS. "That's the camera lady. She's big!"

"I am the Generic Lifeform and Disk Operating System." GLaDOS said to them. "But, I'm sure you can think of a way to shorten it, if you wish."

"Are we going to play a game?" Curiosity asked.

"Three and a half cups… of flower… two teaspoons of… baking soda…" Logic mumbled.

"Grrr…" Anger growled. Morality ignored them all.

"Blue, take them all to the Transferal Chamber." GLaDOS ordered. Atlas quickly picked up each of the cores and carefully held them in his arms, before running off to the location that she'd told him to go to. Curiosity's pupil darted around as Atlas carried them down a long corridor.

"What's that? What's that? What is that? What's _that?"_ Everything she saw along the way sparked her interest. The cameras, the moving panels, the doors, and the little light on a specific door, which Atlas stopped in front of for a brief moment. The light was bright red, but after a few seconds, it was shining green and the door broke open and let Atlas take them through it.

Inside of the door was a dark room, but everywhere Curiosity looked, she saw faint lights. All of the lights came from dials, buttons, and screens in the room. The cores were surrounded by technology, which Curiosity couldn't keep herself from asking about.

"Ooooh, what's in heeere?" she asked. When she saw some lights to her left, she stared at it. "What do those do?" Atlas carried them deeper into the room towards a long line of machines that looked like old, outdated videogame systems. "Where are we going?" Curiosity squeaked in surprise when Atlas roughly plugged her back plug into the port in the middle of the machine. "What's going on?" After she was plugged in, Atlas pressed a large, faded green power button on the machine, and it whirred to life. He did the same with Logic, Anger, and Morality and then backed up.

"Good." GLaDOS said.

"What am I plugged into?" Curiosity asked.

"Blue," GLaDOS said, "run the Corruption Correction software."

* * *

Craig moved his focus to the weighted storage cube as it fell from its dispenser. He'd only been testing for an hour and a half, and he was already immensely bored. All of these tests were fairly simple so far, and the longest it had taken him to finish a test so far had been around ten minutes, and that had been because of technical difficulties.

Regardless, he walked over and picked the cube up off the boring white floor. He gazed up and his eyes quickly found the button that the cube needed to be placed upon. He shook his head as he pondered why he was even doing these tests in the first place. He could've easily refused, but then again, he hadn't known how boring they would become for him. That, and GLaDOS probably would've killed him if he didn't help. After all, what did she need a corrupted core for? Scrap metal and extra circuits, that's what.

He popped a portal on the wall near the door and another on the wall right next to him, and stepped through it with the storage cube in his arms. Then, he dropped the cube onto the big red button and stepped through the door as it opened. The elevator was already on the floor and waiting for him to get in. He shut one eye. Then, he opened that eye, and shut the other. He could've sworn that one side of him saw the world tinted blue, and the other saw it tinted red. This dual optic thing took a lot of getting used to, that was for sure.

He sighed. The fact of the matter was that hhhee _cchhhhhhzzzzzzz…_

Craig shook his head ferociously for a moment and bit his lower lip. Although the Corruption Correction software had done most of its work, being corrupted for this long wasn't _that_ easy to get out of. There were still some bugs. He became irritated once again that this particular new tick of his often interrupted what he considered to be important thoughts.

_Unbelievable,_ he thought as he noticed his rather automatic reaction to the tick, and released his lower lip as he stepped into the elevator. _Two hours into this little ordeal and I'm already acting human. Fact: I do not like this._

As the elevator ascended to take him to the next test chamber, he heard a soft _click_ from the ceiling and already, he could feel his ears ringing.

"How are you doing down there?" GLaDOS's voice asked him. He didn't respond until he had walked all the way up the stairs and into the next test chamber. "Don't tell me you're dead already. Oh wait." One of the cameras on the wall above him moved. "I can see you." Craig sighed.

"Fact: I'm getting tired of this." he finally said.

"Aw, that's disappointing." GLaDOS said. "But, informative."

"When will I be done?"

"I haven't decided yet. But, if you'd rather test with a companion, some other test subjects will be joining you soon." GLaDOS paused. "Actually, it'll be a few hours. So, until then, I guess you're stuck alone."

"Fact: I don't care who I'm with." Craig told her. "My dispute with this is that you're insulting my intelligence with these tests. None of them are challenging at all."

"I see." GLaDOS said quietly. "Very well." Craig stood and waited for her to say more, but her voice never returned. So, he didn't push into anymore conversation. In truth, he didn't want to talk anyway. Talking felt unnatural now that he was more self-aware. It was almost as if putting the word "fact" in front of his sentences was just a method of being sure he was still himself. He began to wonder if his life would've been better if he'd just been sent to space.

He decided against it. Floating around in space didn't sound even half as good as solving these tests. Even then, when he was corrupted, he might've thought differently, but he had still been self-aware enough to show emotion. Surely, he still would've been bored in space after two minutes at the most. That, and being in a Defective Core Storage Unit for the rest of his life left him with no purpose. At least when he was testing, he was serving _some_ purpose, whatever strange and messed up purpose that would be.

Even still, he wished there was something else. This felt rather… empty. He once again pondered simply quitting or just taking a break. And as he gazed up at the blue tractor beam, he realized his dilemma. The fact of the matter wasn't that he was too corrupt to care. The Corruption Correction program had fixed that up pretty good. No, it wasn't corruption.

It was the fact that he really didn't have a choice in the matter.

* * *

_CORRUPTION CORRECTION RUNNING…  
Subject: Aperture Science [Curiosity] Personality Core.  
Estimated runtime: 0h, 47m, 3s…  
Continue Y/N?  
/Y  
Initiating…_

"Oooh, I feel tingly!" Curiosity observed as the machine began its little "clean up" of her system.

_Subject: Aperture Science [Intelligence] Personality Core.  
Estimated Runtime: 1h, 24m, 27s…  
Continue Y/N?  
/Y  
Initiating…_

"This machine… is _not_ made of rhubarb…" Logic said.

_Subject: Aperture Science [Anger] Personality Core.  
Estimated Runtime: 2h, 5m, 0s…  
Continue Y/N?  
/Y  
Initiating…_

"Grrralchahajgaj!" Anger didn't seem to like the idea of being plugged into something that was going to mess with his files. He didn't like the idea of being plugged into something he didn't know anything about. He didn't seem to like any of this in general.

_Subject: Aperture Science [Morality] Personality Core.  
Estimated Runtime: 0h, 15m, 6s…  
Continue Y/N?  
/Y  
Initiating…_

Come on, we all know Morality has _nothing_ to say.

She turned around a bit, unsure of what exactly was going to occur. But, whatever it was, she knew, it wouldn't be harmful. "Corruption Correction" sounded like… well, something that fixed corruptions. And as much as it could've just been a sarcastic name, she highly doubted even an Aperture device would actually have sarcasm programmed into its titles- unless it was an A.I.

An A.I. could be programmed to do anything, from the simplest commands such as "be curious" or "be angry" to "be yourself" which in that case, was a whole new floor on its own, with millions upon trillions of rooms to explore. Morality didn't know too much about it, but she knew from the short time being near Rick and those other cores- Rick, mostly- that had been pulled out of the cage long before they had, that even the personality cores could be programmed to have very human traits. She'd also heard Wheatley over the intercom when he'd gotten in control. He'd turned on all the speakers he could find in the facility, made sure everything was working-

"_Ehem. Uh… yes, um, is- is this thing on? Don't know how I'd… really be able to tell, what with everyone being… y-ya know, _dead,_ and all. Um… b-but, there must be someone out there to hear this, I mean, ya know, the facility _does_ have A.I.s still lurking about, I suppose…" His voice lowered and you'd be able to tell that he wasn't directing it at whatever he was using to broadcast this message. "What? What do you mean, it- arrgh… fine." Then, his voice became loud and acknowledgeable again. "So, yes, um, I'm just gonna go with the assumption that- that the microphone _is _working. It's working, working quite well at that. SO, all technical jabber aside, um, well, I just want to let everyone- everyone, heh, more like um… whoever's _left- _know that, well, I'm in charge now! Haha! Pretty nice, hm? Yes, and I think in honor of the change in- in bosses, I'll um…" His voice became quiet for a moment. "Oh, what do people do when they get- ah! I know! Rename something."_

_Rick rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. This was the only time he'd heard Wheatley talk before he'd been dragged out of the cage and connected to him, and already, not even knowing if anyone would hear him at all, he was talking. Way. Too. Much. For Morality, on the other hand, this was the first and only time she'd ever heard Wheatley speak. And she had to agree: he talked a lot._

"_Hm… nope, no good with that…" Wheatley murmured to himself. "Or those. Those oughtta stay the same. Um… aaahh…" He'd obviously had a fun time thinking that over. "Fine. Ya know what? Here's an idea. This is um… uh, _Aperture _Laboratories, right? Well, not anymore! Not- nope, from now on, it's um… it's _Wheatley_ Laboratories. Yep. Fine name, that. I think I'll stick with that." He paused. "Yep, gonna go with that one. Well, I gotta go, sounds like they- um, my testing robots- they need me over in the… ohmy, no, WHATAREYOU- _AHHH! _No, TURN THAT OFF! IT'S GOING TO OVER- _chhhhhhzzzzz…"

_Rick looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, MAN, I thought he'd never shut his trap."_

-and just had at it. Morality had heard all the human traits in his voice. Nearly everything she'd never imagined was there. Wheatley was obviously an A.I., a personality core, just like her. But, _not_ just like her. No, he was different. He had an ultimately _human_ personality, _human_ speech, everything. The only thing he seemed to lack in the human department was a proper body to fit his personality. And it made her wonder…

Maybe, it wasn't only programming.


	6. The Result

**Indeed. lol Writing this chapter was fun for some reason.**

When the corruption repair program finished with Morality, she didn't feel much different. She hadn't even been all that corrupted to begin with. The only corruption that had needed to be cleaned out were any deep, subconscious things that had most likely resulted from being trapped in an incinerator chute for years, with nothing but her three more-corrupted-than-her friends to listen to. Even when one of them was asleep, there was always noises. Curiosity's questions, Logic's cake ingredients, and Anger's snarling often combined to form a loud and quite _interesting_ symphony in her audio processors.

And then there had been the intense heat. The temperature of the incinerator room itself had just endlessly crashed against her outer shell and hit every artificial nerve she had on the right side of herself. Not only that, but the heat had also been hitting Anger with about as much intensity as it was hitting her, so he was often restless and furious at pretty much everything. And this thought came even with the knowledge that he was pretty much _always_ furious at everything, so this was saying something.

She was surprised she hadn't gone absolutely _mad._

The only thing that explained to her why she hadn't even been corrupted worse than this was the fact that she had always been incredibly patient and tolerant, thus her everlasting silence. Talking wasn't necessary when you had no one to talk _to _besides the three cores she'd known as long as she'd been functioning, and they knew her well enough to know what she was thinking in general, even though she rarely even moved her eye to show emotion.

Even when she'd talked Curiosity down during her panic attack in the cage, it had felt unnatural and unneeded. Morality talked for no one, unless she found it wise and helpful in some way to the situation. Being the Morality core, she had _really_ good judgment, so she never had to struggle to decide whether to talk or not. She may not talk as much as some people may want her to, but so far, nobody was complaining. And should they complain, she would likely ignore it and move on.

She wasn't talkative. That was that.

If she felt any change while she was being repaired, she only felt herself lighten up. She'd been pretty tense throughout the past few days, although she hadn't shown it. And now that she thought about it, she'd been tense since she'd been dropped down the incinerator chute. Ever since that second, she couldn't recall a time where she _hadn't_ been tense. Even when it seemed that everything was finally going to change for her and her friends, she still didn't trust the new cores completely.

It took more than a few new friendly faces to pull her out of her stress. If she hadn't been made out of metal and build to last, she would've sworn she'd had third degree burns. But, that didn't make any sense, so she stuck with the simple _'It hurt. A lot.'_ And it had continued to hurt for several hours after being sucked from the tunnel.

And once she'd finally began to feel some relief in her artificial nervous system, the explosions had begun, and that had only stressed her out more. So, now, she was happy to finally feel such relief. Not only was she here with _all_ of her friends, not dead or hurt, but being repaired. She could've easily dealt with the trauma herself, but having all those stressful thoughts just melt away like cookies being deleted from an internet browser was so much better. It was like a five-star spa for a core.

She gave a pleasant sigh, relaxed, and waited for her three companions to finish being repaired.

* * *

Curiosity felt a thrill unlike anything else she'd ever felt before when the corruption repair program had announced that it was finished. Even her vision seemed to improve, and thus, when she gazed around, she was able to be twice as excited about finding out what everything was. She was excited, eager about this new self-awareness that she had.

And she was as curious as ever.

"Wow! What a rush! How did you do that? Are there any other cool things in these big machine things? What are we doing after this?" She heard a loud buzz that seemed to come from something to her right. "What was that?" She giggled gleefully.

It was strange to think about. The corruption wasn't her curiosity, oh, heaven forbid. She still wondered about everything and anything at all. But, the only thing that the program had seemed to be correcting was the way she approached it. She'd been extremely hyper almost all the time, and often letting the questions flood out before anyone would even get the chance to answer them. But, now, she felt a huge new chunk of… something. Something that hadn't been there before. Self control, yeah, that was it.

Now that she had more self-control, she would be able to wait for answers without worrying about the world around her. She could look over and see something interesting while waiting for an answer and ignore it without straining herself. It was a great new feeling for her, and then another thought came into her head. Maybe now that she could be patient, she could even _answer_ questions!

She would always have a whole lot of fun just spewing out one question after another, though. In situations such as that, when she didn't care for the answers, but simply felt satisfaction in asking the questions, she would pour them out of her system as quick possible. But, when she was asking a question that required a genuine answer, she would wait for one. She knew now. She'd very rarely waited to be answered. It was 'answer me now before I ask another one!' all the time. Only during times that she felt were important did she ever stop to listen for an answer.

And with that thought came a whole new wave of another something that she couldn't place the name of. This one felt like a gargantuan pile of old memory papers being dumped onto her head, forcing themselves all back into her mind and each one telling her that _it_ was the most important one. She would've shook her head, but it was still plugged into the machine, leaving her fairly immobile. The only times she could ever remember where she'd stopped to listen for an answer to one of her questions were times where she'd valued the answer as much as the question enough to force herself to calm down and ignore the world around her.

And both of them had occurred in that cage with Space as the one answering. Curiosity realized, with her new ability to look away from something for once, that she really missed him. Even now, she still would've loved to hear about space. If space was so incredibly BIG like Space said it was, then it would surely take them a lifetime or two to figure out everything about it, right?

That, and she once again felt that interesting draw towards Space himself. She wanted to be near him. If she was happy, he would be able to enhance her happiness and be happy with her. Being happy with a friend was always double the fun. And if she was sad, maybe he would cheer her up. After all, not every answer she received would always be a happy one. And that almost scared her, because she still had a question lingering in her mind that she was saving to ask the camera lady.

Curiosity recalled what she had called herself. Gene- genemm- um, let's see… G, J? No, L. That was it. Gla- a for and- uh… oh, Disk! There was another word. Where did that one go? At the end, probably. Gla - D? Hm… there was an O in there, but she couldn't remember at all what it stood for. And a B… bot? Robot? Maybe it was an R. Or another A, for A.I. Okay, scratch that…

Curiosity suddenly had a brainwave. She would ask Logic when he was finished being repaired. Surely when all that cake business was finally settled, he would have the answer. He had a better memory than her, after all. He made it obvious with the incredibly long recipes.

* * *

Logic's brain had never felt so cleared.

The only thing he'd really ever found himself thinking about was his favorite cake recipe. He actually couldn't recall how he even knew such a recipe, and why it had been the only thing ever on his mind. Now that his mind was so clear, there was room for so much, including the thought that had never occurred to him before: he didn't have a mouth to eat with or a stomach to digest the food. So, why was he going on about cake all the time? It was a mystery he would never solve.

"Whoa…" Logic muttered, and although he'd just been fixed, it still felt almost alien to him to be thinking like this. His mind wasn't a _list_ anymore, it was an index. "I feel… amazing!"

"Hi, Fish-Cake!" Curiosity greeted.

"Fish-Cake?" Logic laughed. "Is that what you've been calling me?" And then he laughed again. He'd always spoken in long, come-on-I'll-be-90-before-you-finish sort of sentences. And although he could actually understand Curiosity, who'd always talked so fast, he was actually glad that he'd retained his way of speaking even though different words were coming out. He was also glad that he now had the mind to realize this.

"You were obsessed with fish-shaped stuff." Curiosity told him. "And cake! You love cake!" She wanted to twirl around in glee right there. There ya go. Bam! Question answered!

"Heheh…" Logic gazed around the room. "Very well…"

Logic had more or less fallen asleep during the whole process. So, when he'd woken up, it was like the one-minute-next-minute feeling. And a few minutes after he'd woken up,

_Corruption repair completed successfully._

_Subject: Aperture Science [Intelligence] Personality Core._

Logic looked at Curiosity in surprise. He had been created as the _intelligence_ core. That thought made him quite happy, and it also told him just how corrupt he'd been. Corrupt enough, for one thing, not to even realize what his primary function was. And for another, too corrupt to fulfill it even if he'd realized it. Thinking about that now felt weird. It was like walking into a house that was messy beyond comprehension, and cleaning it all up only to realize that everything that was cluttering the house was kitchen stuff, therefore, making the kitchen the only room with anything in it.

"Hey, Fish-Cake, I forget." Curiosity asked. "What's the camera lady's name?"

* * *

Anger was still as infuriated as ever. He hadn't liked this to begin with, and now he wasn't only mad, he was incredibly confused. He'd known where he stood for everything before, and now, he was having trouble knowing _what_ to feel about so many things.

Was he supposed to like this? What was he to think of GLaDOS? And should he worry about what would happen to them next? He decided that they'd confused him on purpose so he wouldn't freak out when they did whatever they wanted to do with him. And that in itself told him the proper emotion for this situation, and it was indeed anger.

"Aaaarrgh!" he screamed. "HOW DARE THEY-" He cut himself off. Words? Where did those come from? And were they good? Well, that was a stupid question. Of course words were good. They made it possible to communicate a million times better than all the snarling, barking, and growling that he'd been so used to being his only method of communication. He decided to give the whole 'calming down' thing a try, and think it over. Make it simple. Figure out what he knew, and what he didn't.

He was the Anger core. He was connected to a big machine that had screwed with his files. He was angry about that. He was also confused. He vaguely remembered a giant computer with a yellow eye, telling that robot that he'd snarled at to run a repair program on them. The repair was finished, and his emotions were scattered. He could _talk._

"Ehm- uh- um…" He was afraid to.

"Hey, Doggie core! Is that you?" he heard Curiosity ask. Doggie core? Well, okay. That was fitting, he guessed, what with the snarling and all.

"Uhhhh… C… Cu-ri-o-si-ty core?" He rolled his eye at himself. How was it that he was having so much trouble talking when he'd been fine a minute ago?

"Hehe, yep! Wow! You can talk, now!"

_Talk._ He thought. _Talk to her._

"H-heh… yeah… I…" he said.

_Come on! Try harder!_

"I can." he confirmed. "And I'm… ugggghhh! I'm so confused!" He may have been able to talk, but his voice still sounded as if he constantly had something caught up in his throat. Had Curiosity not been able to understand him from the beginning, she might've told him he was hard to understand, even though he could talk now.

"It's okay." Curiosity reasoned. "I am, too. I'm waiting for the camera lady to tell us what we're doing next!"

"Eh…" Anger stopped, unsure what to say to that, and unsure if he should really talk much at all.

"We're pretty much… stuck here… until that robot comes back." Logic stated.

"Stuck?" Anger blurted out. "How can we be _stuck?_ This is just- ugh…"

"Ooh! _Ooh!_ Look!" Curiosity squealed. The other cores followed her eye to the dark thing approaching them. "A human! A human!" And as the figure got closer, it was revealed that it was indeed a human. He was wearing a white shirt, rolled up to the elbows, with a dark pink pin, and simple gray pants held up by a belt the same color as his pin. His milk-chocolate brown hair had fallen over his eyes a little, but other than that, he held the appearance of someone who always kept themselves well-groomed. Curiosity twirled herself around happily when he pulled her out of the machine. She was relieved to be able to move again. "Hi, Mister. Thanks for pulling me out."

"Hey, what about us?" Anger snapped.

"F…" Craig stopped himself. He didn't feel like explaining. "I'll get to you…" He held Curiosity by one of her handles, and proceeded to pull the remaining three cores from the machines. Anger wished he could bite the human. Sure, he'd wanted to get out of the machine, but he was holding him upside down and his optic was pressed up against another core.

"Where are we going?" asked Curiosity as Craig carried them out of the room and down a long hallway.

Before Craig could say anything- something he was thankful for, for once- GLaDOS's voice came from everywhere at once. "You'll find out soon enough…"

"Whoa! Hi, camera lady! Where are you?" GLaDOS didn't answer. "Hello?" Curiosity looked at the floor as it passed, and watched the human's feet as they carried them to that mysterious place, called 'you'll find out soon enough.' Then, she turned around and looked up at Craig's face.

"Hi!" she said. He gazed down at her for a moment, looking utterly bored, and then pulled his focus back in front of him. The hallway was dark and dimly lit by a light every now and then, but it only got darker as they went deeper into it, as the light began to become more scarce.

Curiosity noticed things. Being build with a sole purpose for being curious about everything, she had a natural- well, technically _not _natural, it was artificial, but no practice was required for this- way with noticing. And right now, she noticed Craig's face, which expressed emotions ranging along the lines of _bored, annoyed,_ and_ focused._

Either that, or he was zoning out.

Curiosity decided to do what she was meant to do: ask questions. "Are you okay?" He ignored her, so she looked back at the floor to try to catch up with the feet. "You have legs." Still no answer. Curiosity looked back up at him. "You're very quiet, you know."

"I don't think he's very happy…" said Logic.

"Aw…" She couldn't think of a reason _not_ to be happy at this moment, unless the thing waiting for them at 'you'll find out soon enough' was a bad thing. But, if not, then what was there to complain about? Curiosity knew no feeling of wishing for legs or arms or a face. She'd always been an eyeball, so she didn't know what she was missing. She didn't feel the need to fulfill an empty space that had never been there to begin with. For her, there was nothing _bad_ about the situation, and for the human, well… perhaps the legs were getting annoying? She didn't know how that could be, unless it was possible to get legs tangled up in stuff. She supposed she could ask him…

Curiosity blinked in surprise as a large door in front of them opened up.

"This way, right?" Craig asked.

"This way where?" asked Curiosity excitedly.

"Yes… and do pick up the pace. You're acting like you're not enjoying this." GLaDOS replied. Craig didn't respond, only glared at the camera watching them in the hallway and walked through. He winced at her infuriatingly cheery voice. "Have _fuuun!"_

"Fun? Is this going to be fun?" Curiosity looked around as Craig took them down a long catwalk that led straight to the next door. She gazed down at the bright, possibly toxic substance underneath them, which she could see through the catwalk. It cast a lime-green glow all over the walls, the catwalk, and on them.

"Don't touch that." GLaDOS advised. "It will kill you." Craig rolled his eyes, as did Logic. Curiosity twirled around to see everything. At first glance, the room looked hollow, aside from the green gunk way below them. But, a closer look around told her that the walls were constantly moving, rearranging themselves until they were satisfied with the pattern they were in. The biggest thought that came to any of the cores' minds was that the huge dome of a room was very, very big.

"Beyond that door, you'll find my Cooperative Test Subjects. Hand the cores to them and let them take care of it." GLaDOS instructed. After she said this, Craig stopped in front of the door. With his hands full with the four cores, he had no way to open it. Luckily, the door was one of those push-it-open doors. So, careful to keep his balance, he nervously raised one of his legs and kicked the door open. The force pushed him back a little, and he feared for a moment that he might fall and drop the cores, which wouldn't be good, should one of them fall off of the catwalk and into the murky poison below.

So, with gravity threatening to pull him down, he jerked himself forward, hoping to catch himself with his other foot, but the force he'd put into it was enough to just fling him forward through the door. His eyes went wide as he crashed hard on his chest and subconsciously allowed the cores to tumble out of his arms into the small room. "Gugh!" Curiosity bumped into a tower of boxes, and then rolled a bit backwards.

"Nice move there, smart one." GLaDOS teased. "It's a good thing I'm having my robots take care of the rest. You nearly _killed_ yourself right there." Craig didn't have to ask. He already knew she would punish him if he messed up on her, which was part of the reason why he chose to remain there in the doorway while Atlas and P-Body looked down at him curiously.

"You fell down!" Curiosity said, giggling. Craig only nodded and got to his feet, only dimly aware of the overanxious face he'd been making just a second ago, and turned away from the room.

"Okay. I think you know what to do, now." GLaDOS said.

"You think?" Craig asked, smiling slightly.

The door slammed behind him.

"Well, aren't you just turning out _great."_ GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You seem to be adapting nicely. You haven't tripped over your own legs more than seven times. Maybe it wasn't a mistake to keep you for science instead of tossing you into the incinerator like I'd initially thought to do."

Craig decided to play the calm-and-pompous card that he knew he still had in him somewhere. "Well, it's not surprising. I _am_ the best of them all, and that's a fact."

"Is that so?" GLaDOS inquired.

Craig smiled to himself, sincerely this time. Now, _that_ felt about right. Maybe being serious and bored and overall _irritated_ wasn't his normal gig, but this felt more normal than anything else in this new human-like body felt. The legs, he could get used to; these hands would definitely prove useful; the mouth, he wondered why it was even there, considering that he didn't need it in order to talk.

He shouldn't, right? He'd never needed one before. But, he wasn't complaining about it. Even his mind was scattered in places that they'd never ventured before. For example, while what he remembered of being aware that he was sure he would die during Chell's big epidemic with Wheatley, he hardly remembered any fear at all. Just the simple thought, without emotion: _Death. Huh. Whatever. May as well spew it out with the rest of my amazing knowledge._ Even now, standing on the catwalk over an enormous ocean of green, bubbling sludge that would surely kill him if he fell into it, his focus was actually not on the death itself, but on the _pain_ that would surely come before. And that hardly scared him at all, because he was in no way being threatened by this death.

He knew he was now capable of taking things much more seriously, as displayed in the test chambers before. But, he hated it. The constant seriousness that the situation called for was already beginning to drive him mad. He needed something that he was used to. And whether he believed some of stuff he said or not, letting people know of his superiority and being calm and quick was exactly what he was good at, and _that_ was a fact.

"Well, then." GLaDOS continued with a chuckle. "Why don't you prove it to me?"

**I'm gonna have too much fun with GLaDOS later. xD**


	7. These Are My Hands

**Hehehe I _know_ why this one was fun to write! :D**

"…a-and it's a pretty clever thing, that. Aristotle vs. Mashy Spike Plate, hehehehhhhh… ahh, probably _not_ the best example, not- not the best thing to bring up when asking someone if a moron could come up with that, no… especially not someone- not the specific someone you were about to um… to _smash…_ with that Mashy Spike Plate. O-obviously, in the event of Aristotle vs. Mashy Spike Plate, Mashy Spike Plate wins. Heheh! But- but, in the event of Mashy Spike Plate vs. _her, _well, um… well, _she _wins…"

It had been a long time since Wheatley and Rick had had their little talk, and since then, Wheatley had been thinking harshly to himself, or rather, _thinking out loud._ Rick was, once again, thankful he couldn't hear all of that clearly, or he would've been fed up. At this point, one of Wheatley's _'reasons I'm not a moron'_ speeches had turned in favor of the Mashy Spike Plate. And shortly after, it had turned _again,_ in favor of Chell.

Wheatley had a tendency to get really off-topic, to just ramble on and on and _on_ forever until something shut him up, (that something sometimes being the awkward atmosphere) and to be extremely redundant. Whenever something in the conversation had reminded him of another point he could make- a point that would be good for a _different_ conversation- there he went, off down that new road in his brain, and by the time he finally stopped talking, the conversation would've gone from _'space is boring' _to _'what _is _a kumquat, anyway?'_

"Guhh… this… this whole being in space thing is really starting to get to me…" Wheatley sighed.

"Spaaaaace!" Space screamed as he orbited around Wheatley.

"Yes, yes, I know… God, I just wish I could tell her! Just- just one chance to- to tell her how sorry I am! Then, maybe…"

"Space, I'm _in_ space."

"I just wish I could do it all over… right there, from the _moment_ I became the boss…"

"There's the Big Dipper!"

"I'd dip- GAHH!" Wheatley suddenly screamed. "Hey, mate! If it's all the same to you, why not settle down a bit? Huh? I- I mean, we've been in space for bloody hours! Take it in, already! Honestly, you really _are_ obsessed with space, aren't you?"

"Space." Space replied happily.

Wheatley sighed heavily. "Fine… fine, very well… a-at least _one_ of us is happy."

"Don't take it so hard, sonny." Rick said to Wheatley. "Even though this is… pretty much all your fault-"

"Oh, gee, thanks, mate." Wheatley interrupted.

"Now, hey, lemme finish!" Rick insisted. "Even though you screwed up everything for yourself- and _me,_ I might add- look at the bright side: you did blow a lot of things up!"

"And how is that a bright side?"

"Have you _seen _an explosion?"

Wheatley shook his head. "Nice try."

"The moon, it's the moon!" Space pointed out.

"Okay, okay, look…" Rick paused. "What about all the awesome stuff ya did _before_ you ended up in space?"

"Hm… I- I guess, maybe you have a point…"

"OF COURSE I have a point!" Rick sounded excited. "Ever heard of 'goin' out with a bang'?"

"Um… oh, yeah. Heard that one. It's a bit uh… kinda hints to a big, fiery death, doesn't it?"

Rick paused. "Well, yeah, you got yourself a point there. We didn't actually _die."_

"But- but, that's good, right?" Wheatley asked hopefully.

"Yeah! See, that's the way to think." Rick agreed. He vaguely wondered why he was even trying to help Wheatley feel better. Maybe it was the fact that Wheatley was far enough away that they wouldn't have to listen to each other unless they specifically addressed one another. "Like, take me, for example…" Oh, there it was! The biggest reason, if any, that Rick would do this was for an opportunity to boast about his own adventures.

"You?" Wheatley asked.

"Yeah. Ya see, I'm stuck in space, just like you."

"We're in space!" Space rattled off.

"But, before _this, _man, I had so many adventures, I've long since lost count!"

"Oh! Well, that's cool. What uh… what was the very last adventure you had before uh, before this?"

"Oh, well, I don't even remember!" Rick laughed. Wheatley gave him a confused look. "Heheh, but I don't know. I guess the last one I had was when that woman you were fightin' was carrying me around your big lair of death down there."

"Heh, right…" Wheatley said awkwardly.

"Before that, I just took it slow for awhile. In fact, I met that little idiot over there before that big claw came down and attacked us." Wheatley tried to gaze back at Space, but he couldn't very well find him at this point. "There were several others cores in there, too. Four of them were newer; they'd dropped in with us quite awhile before you made your big _'I'm all in charge and stuff'_ announcement. I didn't really um-" Rick cleared his throat- or, at least, felt the need in the conversation to make the sound of one clearing their throat. "Didn't really care for any of em, 'cept for the two ladies. At least, I'm… pretty sure they were ladies."

"What? Cores?" Wheatley was puzzled.

"Yeah. I got like, a pretty lady radar, er somethin'. I can look at someone- even a robot- and I'd just _know… _they'd be a nice-lookin' lady if they were human." Rick sounded mesmerized, but it sounded like a load of bollocks to Wheatley. "So, yeah, the rest of them were annoying. In fact, I was so annoyed, I was about ready to knock em both out!"

"Why?"

"They wouldn't. Ever. Shut. Up!" Rick said this as if it were the most dreaded thing one could ever think of.

"Ah… well, um… sounds like ah… not, not a fun time."

"Nope. But, hey, there's a bright side- for me- to this whole bein' in space thing: don't have to listen to them idjits anymore."

"Right, right…" Wheatley nodded.

"So, um, back to the ladies. One of them was silent, never talked once that I heard. Maybe she talked when I was asleep er something', I don't know. But, I never heard a word come out of her mouth- er… uh, well, she _had_ no mouth, but, uh… you- you know what I mean." He paused as Wheatley nodded. "And the other was another quick-talkin' core. You'd think I'd-a hated her, along with Space dummy and Four Eyes."

"Wait, did you say _'four-eyes'?_ How… how is that possible?" Wheatley asked.

"Well, obviously, I didn't mean _literally."_ Rick replied. "But, anyway, you met em! They were attached to you when you were throwing bombs, and trying to kill-"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember now." Wheatley said quickly.

"Right, them boys." Rick confirmed. "But, this girl actually wasn't so bad. She wanted to know _everything! _It could actually get a bit annoyin', but most of the time, she was actually talkin' with the space dude. I swear, they spent hours a day, talkin' about space, and havin' fun gettin' on my nerves." They gazed over to where Space was twirling gleefully. "If them two were peas, they'd be in same pod."

"Huh?" Wheatley sounded stumped.

"You've never heard-"

"Oh, yeah, yeah." Wheatley said. "I just didn't know he had any sort of companions. Thought his head was, well… empty."

"Oh, you shoulda seen em!"

"I'm in spaaaace!" Space said loudly.

"Pretty sure it was the only time he ever used his brain." said Rick.

"Heh…" Wheatley looked around, trying to find Space. "Hey, mate! Where'd you go?"

"SPACE!" Space replied.

"Right, should've expected that." Wheatley said to himself. "Hey, um… I- I kinda, sort of feel a bit down. There's- there's a woman on Earth who I need to talk to, but… but, I can't. Because I'm in _space."_

"Space."

"Good, yes. So, um… tell me, what do you do… when you meet somebody, and then you go stone bonkers and try to kill them, and then you get sent off to space…"

"Wanna see me? Buy a telescope."

"You're not listening, are you? Am I boring you? Sorry, sorry. Um… uh… how to make this faster…?"

"I love space."

"Um… oh. Here we go, a simpler question. Hey, can you listen for a moment?"

"Bam, guilty, while being in space."

"Okay, well. I'll just ask you now: what happens when you leave your friend on earth?" Space didn't reply this time, but he didn't seem to be thinking it over. Then again, Wheatley could hope. After all, it was hard to look like you were thinking when you were spinning around in space. But, it was also _Space core._

"Why do you bother?" Rick asked Wheatley. "His brain might be broken."

"Are- are you sure?"

Space stayed silent.

"Yep. Pretty sure his brain's dead."

"I… I didn't… mean to-"

"Earth." Space finally said.

Wheatley hesitated. "What?"

"Well, set me on fire and call me a blowhard!" Rick exclaimed.

"Earth." Space said. Then, he started rambling again. But, this time, he wasn't talking about space, and that was shocking all by itself. "Wanna go to earth. Wanna go to earth wanna go to earth wanna go to earth wanna go to earth wanna go to earth…"

"Wh- when- what?" Wheatley was utterly surprised. "But-"

"Are you joking?" Rick cried.

"Wanna go to earth. Wanna go home, wanna go home, wanna go home!" Space continued.

"Well, uh- I do, too, but…" Wheatley said.

"All this time, you've wanted to go to space, and NOW that you're here, you wanna go BACK?" Rick continued to rant.

"Earth, earth, earth, earth. Don't like space. Don't like space. It's too big, too big…" Space said.

"Well, DUH! You just now realized that? You're even dumber than I thought!" Rick yelled.

But, Space wasn't listening. Rick and Wheatley didn't seem to know that he was demonstrating exactly the way he reacted upon realizing that he'd left a friend on earth, never to be seen again. Space felt a twinge of anxiety as he repeated it again.

"Wanna go to earth!"

* * *

When Curiosity opened her eyes, she had been nearly blinded by the light in the room. It quickly dimmed down as she got used to the brightness. She saw the room move around, turn right-side up, as she was dimly aware of her nerves, feeling… feeling something.

"Wh… what… happened?" she asked. A typical question. She gazed down at the pale blue blanket underneath the striped, human legs on the bed. Stripes? That was new. She felt strange, but she only assumed that a human with black and white striped material on their legs was holding her.

"Who are you?" she asked, but nobody answered. "Hello?" She looked around the room. Other than the bed, it didn't look much like a bedroom. There was a large, metal cabinet near the doorway and a bunch of smaller cabinets around the room. There was no closet, just endless clutter, and the thick smell of dust. As the legs moved from the bed to the floor, as did her vision, which was understandable. But, when she tried to look up at the human's face, she saw nothing. Upon looking up, she noticed that a panel was missing from the ceiling and- looking back down at the floor- had fallen down onto the floor in front of her.

"This is weird. My eye is…" Curiosity shook her head, and then shut her eyes immediately as she felt something stab into them. "Ahh!" She put her palms to her eyes and stumbled back, unaware that the thing that had poked her in the eyes was the curly, red hair that sat on her head. And then-

_-thud!_

"OW! That hurt!" Curiosity cried after she'd fallen back onto the floor.

She took her hands from her eyes when they stopped burning and looked around nervously. "What is happening?"

One of the legs decided to stick its knee up into the air and move its foot closer to her. As the legs trembled for whatever reason, Curiosity finally thought to consider the possibility that maybe…

She concentrated in her mind, told the leg to move back and forth. And after a few seconds, it did as she commanded it. Her eyes went wide, and her elbows found the floor. Then, she told her other leg to point its knee to the ceiling as the other leg was doing, and after a few seconds, it did. Soon, it became a little game with her legs. She thought of a movement, and the legs copied it. She became so excited that she laughed out loud.

"Legs!" she finally said, taking it in. "I've got-" She suddenly pulled herself into a sitting position and stared at her feet, which were all black and white and orange. Her hands tried to come up in front of her face, but somehow found their way behind her back instead. She swung them both forward, and her right hand collided with the bed frame, leaving her knuckles feeling like they were on fire. "Ahhh! Painful!" Suddenly, her left hand was closed over her right hand, and she could finally see them.

"Your hand hurts." she told her non-existing companion. Then, she began to move her hands around in odd ways, playing the "I think it, you do it" game with them.

_These are _my_ hands._ The thought sunk in.

"And if I have hands and legs," she said aloud, "then, I have-" Her hands shot up before she could even mentally command them to do so and rested against her cheeks. _"A face!"_ Her hands carefully and clumsily examined her face. One of them met her nose, the other poked her in the eye. "Ow! Stupid body! Why are you hurting me?" She looked around the small room again, not even bothering to ask _how_ this happened. She was too busy with _what_ to do next. First thing was first. She made her right hand go up and grip the bed frame (carefully this time), and pull at it. Nothing happened. "Hm…" She thought it over.

Maybe the legs could help.

She moved her right foot closer to her, pulled on the bed frame again, and still, nothing happened. So, her foot continued to get closer to herself, and she found herself pushing on the floor with her other hand as she pulled at the bed frame. She felt her butt leave the floor for a moment, but pulling the rest of herself up turned out to be so hard that she simply let go. Okay, so legs _were_ helpful, obviously, but she didn't know how to use them.

"Is there a manual in here?" she asked the air. "I can't…" She tried to pull herself up again, but failed. "I can't get up!"

She stared at the door. The thought that maybe someone was waiting behind it came to her, and she started to holler for any sign of someone who could help her. "Helloooo! Is anyone there? Hello?" She paused, waited for an answer, and received none. "I- I need help! Hello?" She sighed and looked down.

"I guess I'm on my own…" she told the floor.

That thought scared her almost to death. She was alone, unable to move much better than she had been able to as a sphere, in a tiny room with no one else to keep her company or help her, and no idea of what lurked beyond the door. She sat there for a few moments, unsure of what to even think about next, too scared to try to move, and still hesitating to ask any questions that involved 'why the heck am I a human?' She glared at the floor upon realizing that obviously, the way she'd gotten into this room was through the door, so there couldn't be anything scary or deadly on the other side… could there?

She couldn't help but wonder.

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, hugging them. If there was no one around to hold her, she would hold something else to feel secure. It wasn't the same, but it felt interesting to be the one holding something for a change, instead of relying on someone else's grip to take her places. She'd never complained about it. Being carried around had never been bad, but it was nothing compared to the thought of carrying _herself._

And as she stared at the door once more, thinking this over, she wondered if the human that had been carrying her and her friends earlier hadn't been human to begin with, either. She recalled everything about him, from his hair, to the pin on his shirt, to his laughable expression when he'd fallen in the tiny room where the robots had taken her and made her sleep. But, the thing that had always stood out to her, especially when he appeared distressed in any way, were his bright, artificial, pink eyes.

She'd seen the eyes of the lady from the tests. Her eyes were pretty, yes, but they were dull compared to the bright glow of a core's eye. Her eyes had not only been void of almost any color, but they'd been empty, like her focus was never where she was at that time. And maybe, she hoped, that was why she had thrown her into the incinerator chute. But, she shook that thought from her head. That would be a thought for another time. For now, she wanted to find that human and ask him questions.

As she gazed at the door, she subconsciously thought over a different way to get to it. She pushed herself forward, and tried to get on her knees. Only after falling on her face and yanking her arms out from underneath her legs did she manage to sit up enough to pull herself onto her knees.

"I must be good at this." she complimented herself. And with that, she pulled one of her knees forward, and then pushed it against the floor with all the force she could, and that only sent her flying a couple of feet, and landing on her chest. She smiled. That was a start; she was getting closer. But, when she looked up at the door, closer now, she realized that the doorknob was missing. She recalled humans using them to open doors, so if she didn't have one, then, would she be able to…?

"Ah, good, you're awake." Curiosity jumped as GLaDOS's voice filled the room.

"Camera lady?" Curiosity asked instinctively.

"Sure, whatever." GLaDOS replied. "Anyway, you should stay where you are, until someone can come and collect you."

"Collect me?" Curiosity asked. And then, she decided to go ahead and rattle off the rest of her questions. "Where did this body come from? What happened while I was asleep? How do I use these legs? Where did my old body go? Where are you? Where am _I? _Will I figure out how to use thi-"

"All of your questions will be answered in a little while." GLaDOS interrupted.

Curiosity stared up at the door desperately. "Th- they will?" But, GLaDOS was done talking. "Camera lady?" After a long pause, Curiosity decided to go ahead and at least try to stand up. She remembered the position of her legs having something to do with the process of getting to her feet, so she pulled her knees up closer to her and tried find a sturdy position so she could push herself back up. She managed to get her knees to move, and then her feet followed them. Her arms turned around so her hands would press against the floor.

"Okay…" she murmured. "One… two…"

_Creeeek…_

Curiosity froze and stared up at the door, which was now coming towards her slowly and cautiously. She watched as some familiar pink eyes found their way around the door and glanced down at her. She was unaware that walking into a room to find a human lying on their chest with their butt up in the air and their chin on the floor was an odd sight.

"Hi!" Curiosity greeted cheerfully. "I… I think I'm backwards."

The human's eyes narrowed in amusement.

"C-can you help me up? Please?" Curiosity continued. Craig moved his gaze away from her. He would've loved to laugh at her and tell her to figure it herself, but even he would feel bad in doing so. He would never admit it, but he had needed a lot of help from Atlas and P-Body to get up and into the test chambers, and that was when he'd began tripping over his own legs.

So, although he dreaded that position himself, GLaDOS had sent him for this, specifically, and he knew she expected results. He opened the door as far as it would go without hitting Curiosity and carefully weaved himself around the door to get into the room and into a decent spot to stand, all without tripping or stepping on her. Once he was standing on her right, he felt it safe to relax and brush himself off.

Curiosity had followed him all the way over there without looking away once, and that was a bit hard, even with her new state of mind. She simply watched him, waiting for a response of some kind. Just as he feared he wasn't going to help her, he bent over and extended his hand for her to grab. Taking this as another something to use to pull herself off of the ground- with the help of her legs- she gripped the hand and pulled as hard as could all at once.

Craig, taken by surprise, succumbed to her weight and collapsed on the floor next to her. Curiosity simply watched in silence as he gave a flustered face and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Curiosity tilted her head in confusion. His knees were doing that 'I wanna be the head' thing like hers had been doing earlier.

"Why did you fall?" she asked. "Do you need help now, too?" Craig shook his head no and rested his arms on his knees.

"Here's a fact to help you out: you shouldn't put all your weight on me at once." he advised.

"Oh." Curiosity nodded as if she understood. "But, where do I put the rest of it while it's waiting? Are you only going to pull part of me up?" Craig shook his head again.

"No, no… just- well, you'll get used to it." Curiosity watched in awe as he stood back up like it was no problem.

"Whoa! You're good at having legs!" she observed. Craig nodded, and held out his hand again, this time bracing himself for the sudden pull. However, after she grabbed his hand, the pull never came. He gave her a puzzled face as she stared at him, waiting for instruction. After a few moments, she decided to ask, "What now?"

Craig glanced around unsurely. "Um…" He paused. "Okay, let _me _pull you up for now, and use your legs to get yourself sitting up." Curiosity nodded, and left the pulling to him as she tried to pull one of her knees closer to herself and push against the floor with it. This, along with Craig's help, allowed her to sit up.

"Ah! I'm sitting!" Curiosity exclaimed happily. Then, she looked at Craig. "This is sitting, right?"

Craig nodded. "Fact: That _is_ sitting." Curiosity smiled in excitement and turned herself around on this new axis called her torso to look around the room. "Okay, stay focused for a little longer, okay?" Curiosity twirled back around to look at him, obviously distracted, but trying her best to look focused.

"Yep!" she squeaked in reply.

"Good." With this, Craig proceeded to step in front of her- cautiously, just in case she made a sudden movement- and wrap his arms around her.

"What are you doing?" she asked in her usual, curious voice.

"Don't freak out on me, or we'll probably _both_ end up hurt." Craig warned her. Curiosity nodded, and her eyes widened as she felt her knees leave the ground, followed by her feet. "Okay, now stand up!" Curiosity kicked her legs back and forth playfully, before finding the floor with one of her feet.

"The feet go first, right?" she asked.

"Yes." As she put both of her feet on the floor, Craig set her down as gently as he could manage, and then let go of her, slowly and carefully, like she was a cup of water on a counter that he would've dreaded to knock over.

"Am I standing?" she asked. Craig simply nodded, and put one of his hands on her shoulder.

"Okay, now here's the uh… _other_ hard part." he said. "Walking. Fact: If you're going to get anywhere without falling flat on your face, you'll need to take it slow."

Curiosity nodded, looked out the door way, and proclaimed proudly, "I'm ready to learn!"

**There will be illustrations. ^^**


	8. Walking Lessons

**Yerp. This one's a bit shorter than the previous ones, cuz I just kinda ran out of words. xD**

The first few lessons had started out shaky, to say the least, topped with a face plant or two, and Craig had discovered that trying to teach Curiosity how to walk was about as painful and troubling for him as it was for her, if not more.

"I- I think I… _I got it!"_ Curiosity said, trying to take several steps at once while standing on legs so shaky that she swore they were thinking on their own. But, her knees caved in on her and sent her toppling over and rolling into the wall. "Ow!" Curiosity looked around at the now upside down world before her and saw her feet hanging over her head. "Oh-" She attempted to get up, starting with swinging her legs to the side and letting them crash down to the floor.

Craig walked up to her and hunched over, holding his side. "Fact: I'm really glad I was _behind_ you for that one…"

"Oh, this is _so hard!" _Curiosity had learned a little, though. She knew how to use her arms fairly well now, and she knew that she had to push against the floor the right way to get her top half to sit up straight, but her legs were still sprawled in a crumbled pile next to her. "How did you do this?"

"I told you, you need to slow down." Craig replied, letting his arms drop to his sides.

"I _did!" _Curiosity whined.

"Okay, okay." Craig put a hand to his face in agitation. "We'll try it again."

So, he bent over, wincing at the lingering pain in his side from an earlier crash in which Curiosity had managed to shove him into the corner of a shelf and then topple on top of him. It had happened, but whenever Craig replayed it in his head, he could not figure out _how._

Curiosity smiled slightly and gladly took his hand, at least used to the whole _getting up_ thing by now, and pulled herself to her feet. She stood there like a statue for a moment, looking at Craig nervously. Her trouble wasn't only that she was going too fast, or that gravity seemed to be against her, but her knees were so small compared to the rest of her, it was a wonder humans were able to walk around, balancing the whole rest of their bodies on them like golf balls on their tees.

"Go ahead." Craig urged. Curiosity gave an anxious face, but she began to raise her foot. "But, just to throw this fact out there, humans generally take _one_ step at a time, not _three."_ As soon as she bent her knees, they wobbled furiously, so she immediately went back to her statue position.

After a short pause, she demanded, "You have to catch me!"

Craig would've argued, but another thing he'd discovered was that Curiosity tended to argue to the moon and back when she wanted something, and he wouldn't be able to convince her to let him just stand aside and watch if she wanted him to spot her incase her knees decided to try and kill her again.

"Okay, but do be more careful." Craig warned. "The jerk who made these android bodies decided to add the realistic linger of _pain,_ if you haven't noticed."

Curiosity nodded. "I have." And with that, she took a tiny step with her right foot and planted it firmly on the ground, about two inches from its previous spot. She nodded absently, and took another step with her left, remembering that she had to place it _in front_ of her right foot. Her arms shot out to try to balance herself as she began to tip back and forth even after she'd placed her foot on the ground. After a few seconds, she was still again. She smiled happily. So far, so good. Next, she pulled her right foot ahead of her left, and once again, she had to balance herself with her arms to keep from falling. She wasn't even sure how that helped, but apparently it did, so she went with it.

"I'm doing it!" she said excitedly, taking another step.

The next second went by so fast that Craig felt the pain before it actually hit him. "Oh no-" There was a series of various crashes and bangs as he fell back into the tall stack of boxes next to the short, metal cabinet filled with old books and papers. Curiosity yelped when the boxes rained down over them, and suddenly turned her head away to avoid being hit in the face with one of them. Her hands found their way up over her head and gripped handfuls of her own hair as the last of the boxes toppled over them. Craig, on the other hand, was pretty much pinned down with nothing to protect his face from being stabbed with box corners or flattened by the sides of the boxes. Either way, it was ultimately painful.

When the boxes had finally ceased attacking them, Curiosity cautiously looked up from her arms and gazed at the ceiling. No terrifying boxes trying to murder her face. Good. However, something inside her still felt a bit uneasy, or perhaps just wanted to get the question out.

"Is it done?"

"Uhhhhhh…" Curiosity's eyes widened, as if she just now remembered Craig was even there.

"Oh! Sorry. Did- did that hurt?" she stammered.

"No." Craig replied. After a short pause, Curiosity started to say,

"Re-"

"I think I've _lost_ the feeling in my face!" Craig blurted out, and Curiosity threw herself back to get off of him, sending several boxes flying back behind her and knocking into the wall.

"Oh, um, I, uh…" she started. "Here, let me-" Before she even moved to get up, she realized that it would be hard to get up without help. "Um…" She pushed her hands on the floor behind her and felt her knees take the pressure of her weight on the floor again. "Oh. There." Now that she was on her knees, she proceeded to reach over and try to "help."

"Gah- no!" Craig swatted her hand away. "Don't- don't touch me."

Curiosity pulled away and gave him a guilty look, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the ceiling with his hand over his eyes, not moving. Curiosity waited for him to say something, but she became impatient rather quickly.

"Are you okay, _now?"_ she asked.

Craig finally pulled his head back up to look at her, and he didn't look happy. "Let's never do that again." Curiosity nodded, and watched from her spot on her knees as he slowly rose from the pile of boxes.

"Okay, human." Curiosity replied. Her eyes suddenly went wide as she remembered the question she'd wanted to ask him. Craig paused and looked down at her, still annoyed, but a bit taken aback by the term. He was even more surprised when Curiosity started to bang her fist on his legs.

"What- what are you doing?"

"I'm _listening!"_ Curiosity replied, sticking her tongue out purposely to add to her attempt at a pondering face. She'd seen humans do it before, back when there were plenty of test subjects to observe. She remembered one in particular, a young teenage girl, seemed to have a habit of doing it a lot. Whenever she looked over a new puzzle or became stuck, she would put on what Curiosity had come to think of as her signature pondering face. Now that Curiosity had a tongue, she had decided to experiment with that face, since it somehow seemed to help humans think. It wasn't making any noticeable difference in her brain, though.

"Listening, for what?" Craig asked.

"Sounds. Do humans make sounds?"

"I-" Craig paused. Maybe people avoided questions out of laziness or just because they were awkward, often by just blurting out, 'I don't know!'But, of course, who was Craig, the _Fact_ core, to give up that easily on a question? To him, this was a challenge, not an obstacle he needed to avoid with a lazy answer such as, 'I don't know.'

"Well, of _course,_ they do! In fact, humans make so many different sounds, it's usually hard to count them all! And that wouldn't even include the sounds that can be made without their mouths. For example, bones breaking."

"Do _you_ have bones?" asked Curiosity.

"Um- no. I don't."

"Why?" Curiosity found herself grabbing his skinny legs and shaking them back and forth.

"Fact: You don't have bones, either."

"Hmm…" Curiosity let go of his legs, and reached down to grab his left ankles. Before Craig could object or prepare, she pulled his foot out from under him. His other foot slipped forward as he shoved his back against the wall and held himself up with his arms unsteadily, as Curiosity stared at the sole of his shoe. She poked it. "Do shoes have bones?"

"Let go of my foot." Craig ordered her. Curiosity released his foot without a word, and once he was balanced well again, he hopped out of the pile of boxes and stood at Curiosity's side. "Come on. I'm sure the other cores are waiting."

Curiosity jumped up to her feet. "Ooh! Did you make my friends human-y, too?"

"I didn't- how did you-" Craig stammered.

"Come on!" Curiosity shouted excitedly, taking Craig's arm and pulling him along. She was trying to run, but her legs wouldn't allow her to go much faster than she could crawl. And she wasn't really any better at walking- although, the motivation seemed to help- so, her knees threatened to give out on her every one and a half feet, and whenever they did, she was pulling on Craig's arm to keep herself up.

"May I suggest taking it slower?" he asked.

"Nope!" Curiosity squeaked. "Gotta get to the others. And my legs are slow enough!"

"But, you're going to-"

Curiosity laughed as she slipped her hand in between the door and the wall and pulled it forward. She jumped back as the door flew open and tried to hit her leg. This, of course, caused her to lose her balance and fall back. Luckily, Craig had been anticipating this, and caught her mid-fall before she could hurt herself anywhere else. Curiosity looked around for a moment. Then, she threw her arms into the air, nearly hitting Craig in the face.

"YAY! I didn't fall!" she cheered.

"That's because I caught you." Craig informed her.

"I know. But, I didn't fall." Curiosity allowed him to push her gently back into a standing position, where she then proceeded to march through the doorway- carefully- and stop in the middle of the small, dark hallway she found herself in. Craig followed her out of the room, and reached over to shut the light off.

_Click!_

There was a short pause. Then-

"_AAHHH!_ Where are we? What's going on?" There was a low bang and several smaller ones following, along with,

"_Gahh!_ No! Stop! Stay stiAAAH!" _Smash._

"Owwww!" Curiosity whined.

"Uhhhhhn…" Craig moaned.

"Where did you go? You didn't leave me, did you? Please don't go! _I'm lost!"_

"I'm- ow- right _here."_

"Where?"

"You're sitting on me."

"But- then- gah!" He felt her jump off of him, so he quickly kicked at the floor to get away in case she fell on him again. "What was that?"

"What was _what?"_

"The- the…" Curiosity paused, and Craig took advantage of the silence to listen for whatever noise she was apparently hearing. The only thing that his audio processors were able to pick up was a low hum in the background, but that sound was so constant in the facility, it wasn't really even noticeable. But, after a few seconds, a different noise made itself known.

_Bang!_

"There it is." Curiosity squeaked.

_Bang, bang, bang- thud!_

"Oh, it's probably that annoying Anger core." Craig said.

"Doggie?" Curiosity replied. "Oh! We have to go get him!"

Craig could tell that Curiosity was trying to get back up, and wasn't having much success. So, while she was distracted, he stood up and felt the wall for the doorway, careful not to lean on it, should he come across the doorway and fall right off of his feet. Once he found it, his hand flew around the wall and flicked the switch on the other side, turning the light back on. Curiosity's eyes widened, and she gazed back at him.

"You put the light back!" she observed happily. More banging came from the door near the one that was currently their light source, and Curiosity's attention was immediately drawn to the door. "Okay, door, _open up."_ Craig walked by her, rolling his eyes, not bothering to try and explain that doors needed to be opened manually, unless it was built specifically to open only under certain circumstances- like the ones in the test chambers- or built with motion censors- which would've been _great._

Curiosity watched, taking notes with her mind, as Craig turned the doorknob and pushed the door open cautiously. He stepped away and let the door creek open so he could see what Anger was doing without getting attacked. Curiosity leaned forward a bit to have a look. Anger came tumbling out of the room he'd woken up in, obviously utterly _livid._

"Doggie core!" Curiosity exclaimed. "You look all human-y, too!"

"This- this- arrgh!" Anger trembled with emotion as he threw himself back against the wall and held himself up the best he could. He'd apparently been wearing a white shirt, but it was ripped apart to the point where it was just barely hanging from his shoulders and the only spot where it was still wrapped completely around him was the very bottom of it. With this, he had some dark reddish-brown pants and some small black boots pulled over them.

When Anger looked up at Craig, his eyes shrank. _"YOU!"_

Curiosity gasped as Anger pushed his hands against the wall as swiftly and hard as he could and went flying forward. In an attempt to pin Craig to the wall, he tripped over himself and just went crashing into him. The two of them rolled around for a couple of seconds before Craig hit his head on the wall and Anger found himself on top of him.

"What happened to me? _What did you do?"_ he demanded.

Curiosity attempted to crawl towards them. "It's okay, Doggie!" she reasoned. "He-" She pointed to Craig, who was holding his head in pain. "-helped me." Anger looked at her, breathing heavily. "I couldn't use my legs. He's showing me how."

Anger managed to compose himself enough to quiet down a bit. But, he wasn't breathing any lighter. "But he… brought us… into this!"

Curiosity put her hands on Anger's cheeks gently and cautiously. Anger flinched and blinked harshly several times. Curiosity, Morality, and _maybe_ Logic were the only ones he'd ever _let_ touch him, merely because he knew and trusted them. Even still, he was tempted to pull away.

"Can we go find Fish-Cake and Mora, now?" Curiosity asked him. Anger was still trembling, but he managed a nod. So, Curiosity let go of him and watched him give Craig one more death glare, before kicking himself off of him. "Are you okay?" He stared at the floor and merely growled in response. "It's okay," Curiosity put one of her hands on Anger's shoulder. "I think walking is hard, too."

Craig finally sat up. "Fact," he declared, "this is the _worst_ day of my life."

"What is taking so long in there?" GLaDOS's voice inquired over the intercom.

"Hi, camera lady!" Curiosity greeted. "Er- uh- I mean, Gladys."

"Hello, Curiosity core." GLaDOS replied bitterly. There was a pause. "How are the legs?"

"Good, good." Curiosity replied, shaking one of her legs experimentally.

"Hurry up." GLaDOS said to Craig. "We have work to do." And with that, she left.

Craig banged his head against the wall in frustration.

"Um- what should we-" Curiosity began.

"You two stay there, and practice walking." Craig instructed, pointing to them. _"You_ teach _him_ what I taught you, if he has problems. I'll go get the other two." Curiosity and Anger were silent as Craig got to his feet and stomped over to the next door.

"I think he's mad." Curiosity observed quietly.

**Stating the obvious is so fun.**


	9. Back To Space

**GAHHHHHH! I'm soooo sorry this took so long to submit! I know y'all were waiting for me. Heh. I just had a MASSIVE writer's block on this chapter. But, rest assured, I've got big plans for the rest of the story. :D So, don't abandon meh yet! 8D**

Once Morality had come out her room- with a bit of help from Craig, but not as much as Curiosity had needed- Curiosity had tackled her right back onto the ground in a big surprise hug. And of course, somehow along the way, she'd managed to knock Craig into the door.

"Ow!" Craig reached up and grabbed the back of his head as Curiosity and Morality tumbled to the floor. "For the love of-"

Morality gasped.

"MORA! You look GREAT! Can you walk okay, because I can't. I need a lot of help, so that human over there has been helping me walk. And I can'tbelievethisissoexcitingdoyo uthinkit'sexcitingwecandosomuchmo-"

Morality put a single finger to Curiosity's mouth to silence her. Once Curiosity was focused on her, she nodded her head yes, to indicate she got it already. Curiosity nodded slowly with her, and proceeded to carefully get up off of her.

"I'm getting better." she stated, glancing at Anger, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, casting a glare at Craig. Morality nodded and grabbed the doorway to pull herself up. She gazed at Craig, a questioning look.

"Why don't… _you_ handle the last one?" he asked casually, but his eyes were begging her to.

Morality nodded, so he walked away from the doorway and leaned against the wall as far from Logic's door as he could, sure that he couldn't get hurt this time. Anger growled at him as he passed by, and Craig gave him a suspicious look in return. Silently, Morality proceeded to open up the door to the room that Logic had been placed in, and peer inside.

Logic was already standing up, and he was digging through a cabinet in his room to see if there was anything in it. Mostly, all he was pulling out were clothes. When he heard the door open, he turned around to see who was there.

A faint smile crept onto his face, and he stood up straight to greet his friend. "Well, hello Morality."

Morality nodded, her smile just as faint. Logic walked up to her- slowly, but smoothly- and Morality knew then that he'd already taught himself to walk.

"Alright, come on!" Craig shouted from behind her. She turned around and simply gave him a blank look in return. He was waving his hand forward urgently. Morality rolled her eyes and gestured for Logic to follow her. And with this, the five cores were finally off to meet up with GLaDOS.

"I- I think I've finally got this walking thing down!" Curiosity said happily, waving her arms around a few times as she walked at a slightly slower pace than Craig and Logic. Morality walked by Curiosity's side, and Anger trudged on behind them, glaring off at something. Morality nodded to Curiosity to show her she agreed. "I'll be running you guys over in no time!"

"Hmph!" Anger huffed.

"Just- just pick up the pace, you guys." Craig said, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "I don't want-"

Suddenly, there was a series of static, coming from the ceiling. "Did you die down there or are you just really, _really_ slow?" GLaDOs sounded more than a little irritated.

Craig hesitated. "I'm still here."

"Well, I would hurry it up if I were you. I didn't tell you to take ten years just to wake up the other test subjects!"

"I'm getting to it! We're-"

The lights flickered on and off and there was more static. Curiosity jumped at Morality for support, and Anger was starting to huddle down on the floor. After the power regulated itself again, GLaDOS's voice clicked back in. "Ugh… we're having some technical difficulties. Get up here now or find your way back up in the dark."

_Click._

About ten minutes later, Craig and other four cores finally made it back up on the same level as GLaDOS's chamber. Morality and Logic were helping Curiosity every few steps because the lights had indeed gone out. Anger had resorted to crawling on all fours like a dog; it was much easier for him, and he didn't give a rip if he didn't act human. It's not like he wanted to, anyway.

"Guh…" Craig moaned, holding his head. His entire body was aching for reasons he couldn't explain. He'd only fallen once in the dark, and he hadn't recalled it being _that_ bad. Anger growled just to show him he was there, and he still didn't like him. Logic decided to humor him and ruffle his hair a bit. Anger shook his head in protest, but he didn't seem to notice that his hair was a wreck anyhow.

Curiosity giggled.

"Okay…" Craig muttered. "We're almost the-errrrrrrg!" His hands shot up and held his head as if trying to block out sound. His vision flickered on and off and he began to feel a headache, as if the gears in his head were stuck and grinding against each other. "_Ahhhhhhhh-_" Suddenly, his mind went blank.

He stood there, unmoving, for a few solid minutes, until Curiosity finally broke the silence.

"Are you okay, human?"

Craig jumped and whirled around to find the four cores staring at him in confusion. One of his hands made its way to his head again, and he remembered where he was. "Uh…" he started. But, he just turned around and started walking again. Anger perked up and started to follow him. Logic and Morality followed silently. Curiosity, however, was determined to get her answer. She ran ahead and put her hand roughly on Craig's shoulder.

"Hey, human, does your head hurt?"

Craig turned around and flailed his arms around. "Ba- _pffff!_ Why are you asking?"

Curiosity waited several seconds before answering. "I'm curious?"

Craig put a hand to his left temple and sighed, pulling his head down and shutting his eyes, as if aggravated. "What's your name, again?"

Again, she paused before answering. "I'm curious?" she replied in the same tone, as if she didn't know how to answer. Then, she started again. "Cur… cur…"

Craig opened his eyes and stared at her. She sounded like she was trying to pronounce her own name.

"Cur… i… os- sity!" she said, smiling proudly when she was done. "That's my name."

Craig raised an eyebrow, then turned away from her and started towards the door that would take them into GLaDOS's chamber. "Well, Miss Curiosity…" He turned his head slightly to see if she was still paying attention. "I'll have you know that- despite my statement earlier- I'm doing just fine, thank you."

Curiosity started following him again, as did the other cores. "What's _your_ name?"

Craig paused in front of the doorway that lead to the vestibule, and stared at the floor. After a couple dozen seconds, he knew her silence meant she was actually waiting for an answer this time. So, he gave her one.

"According to most advanced algorithms, the world's best name is Craig."

Curiosity was silent for a moment. Then, she jumped up excitedly and giggled. "I like that name!"

Craig smiled at her reaction, and walked through the doorway.

GLaDOS was waiting for them in her chamber, and as Craig walked into the large room, he already felt her looming over him expectantly. He dared not make eye contact, but he gestured towards the other cores as they all stepped in front of him and looked up at her.

"Ahh…!" GLaDOS said, looking over the cores. "Brilliant designs."

"Oooh!" Curiosity squealed. Craig vaguely glanced at her as she practically danced over to GLaDOS. "Look, camera lady! I have legs, now!"

"I can see that, Curiosity core." GLaDOS replied, in a nicer tone than Craig had ever heard her use.

"I know! Isn't it _great?_"

"How come you are no longer using us as cores, GLaDOS?" Logic asked.

"Oh, don't worry, Intelligence core." GLaDOS assured him. "I no longer require you to be attached to me. But, you can assist in the test chambers. I am out of test subjects, you see."

Logic nodded. Craig still didn't look at her. But, GLaDOS saw through his anti-social act.

"Fact core." she said precisely, startling him. Craig gazed up at her. "I mean- Craig." She corrected herself, and he cringed upon hearing her use his name. "I'll have my Cooperative Testing robots escort you and the other test subjects to the correct chambers." Craig nodded and quickly looked away. "But, while you wait," He looked back up at her. "feel free to explore your new human abilities." She was addressing all of the cores, now. "You'll be needing them."

Craig's eyes narrowed.

He didn't want to go back to testing- it was nothing, but a waste of time and thought for him- but he said nothing. He crossed his arms and sat cross-legged on the floor. He already knew how to use his new "human" abilities, so why bother practicing? He did gaze over at the other cores every now and then to see how they were doing. And it was actually rather amusing. Logic was walking perfectly, and he was showing Morality some of the basic stuff that she hadn't already picked up. Anger was still crawling like a dog. He even ran around on all fours like one, and Craig figured he'd be using that tactic for all of the tests. Perhaps, until he figured out he needed to use the portal gun. And Curiosity- oh, how eager and excited she was- was indeed running around the room like a maniac. She came up behind Anger, petted him on the head, and then bolted before he could swipe at her.

Craig couldn't help, but chuckle at the sight.

But, he wasn't amused for long. Soon, Atlas and P-Body were entering the chamber and greeting the four cores. He simply ignored them until P-Body walked up to him and told him it was time to go. Craig then shrugged and followed behind all the other cores and the two co-op robots. GLaDOS gave them a few words of farewell before they left.

"See you in the test chambers!" She sounded too amused, and Craig was sure she was laughing at him on the inside. Once the door shut behind them, he growled.

"So aggravating…" he muttered.

"D'aw, cheer up!" Curiosity said, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling him into an awkward neck-lock. "We're going to be test subjects!" She paused. "Whatever those are."

Craig glared at her. "So, you won't be disappointed if say, 'test subjects' serve the purpose of something you hate? Like, perhaps, _death_ of some sort?"

"Um…" Curiosity put a finger to her chin and gazed up at the ceiling. "I never thought about that…" She let go of him and pranced ahead of them. "But, I'm not worried!" She turned around as they continued. "You're a test subject, right?"

Craig rolled his eyes. "Yes, _now._"

"Cool! I wonder…" Curiosity turned back towards the rest of the group and ran up next to P-Body. She tapped her on the shoulder, and that just startled her. "Where are we going?" P-Body hesitated, but then she let out a few chirps and pointed forward. Curiosity smiled, but her eyes looked shocked. "I have no idea what you're saying." P-Body shrugged. "But, okay!" Curiosity slowed down and walked with Morality.

Soon, they came to a big, bulky, metal door with a giant turn-lock. Curiosity jumped into a barrage of questions about the big door.

"Ooh, what's that? What's that do? What's that big thing? Why does it look like that?" P-Body just watched as Atlas punched in a password into the keypad to the side of the door and then gripped the big turn-lock. He struggled for a moment, but then it budged and turned around to the left. The cores heard a low click and the door popped open. Atlas and P-Body quickly dashed inside, but the cores found themselves curious about what was inside, so they all leaned forward and tried to have a look.

Atlas came out with a portal gun and a pair of long fall boots and handed them to Morality, who happened to be in front of everyone. She took them silently and looked at them.

"Oooh!" Curiosity squealed. "What is _that?_" She pointed eagerly to the portal gun and Morality merely shrugged and ventured to the back to put her boots on. P-Body came out shortly after with another portal gun and pair of boots, and handed them to Logic. Atlas gave another set to Anger. Curiosity started to become impatient. "Is it my turn?" Atlas and P-Body looked at each other and shrugged, before returning to the stock room. After a few more moments of shuffling around, Atlas came out holding a portal gun and P-Body carried the fall boots. They both handed their prize to Curiosity pretty much at the same time, so she took the portal gun in one arm and let them set the boots on top of it.

Curiosity squealed happily and dropped onto the floor to fiddle with them.

Craig already had his fall boots on, but he had left his portal gun with the two co-op bots so he wouldn't have to carry it around when he went to help the other cores to their feet. So, being portal gunless once again, he walked up in front of the other cores and held out his hands expectantly. P-Body nodded and quickly ran inside to fetch him a portal gun.

Once everyone was equipped with their boots and portal guns, Atlas and P-Body shut and locked the door to the stock room and they were off to the test chambers.

They all walked for a short fifteen minutes, and all the while, everyone was fairly silent. Curiosity became bored when she ran out of things to observe and ask about, so she started silently stalking each of the cores as they walked. The walk to the test chambers was slow for Curiosity and Craig. Logic and Morality didn't seem to care. And for Anger, time sat still.

Eventually, P-Body and Atlas stopped in front of the cores, catching a couple of them off guard. Atlas gestured towards the door in front of them. So naturally, all of the cores started towards it. But, P-Body waved her hand in front of them, telling them to stop. Then, she pointed once at Curiosity, and once at Craig, and then pointed at the door, chirping her own words the whole time. Curiosity looked at Craig for a moment, confused, and he simply started towards the door and motioned for her to follow. So, she did, and once they were in the test chamber, the door shut behind them.

"Wow!" Curiosity exclaimed. "I've seen this before!"

"Have you, now." Craig replied.

"Yeah! There was a lady here and she came into the camera lady's room and… and…" She trailed off and looked to the floor. Craig noticed her sudden silence and turned to look at her. She was staring at the floor, not wanting to look up. Not usually one to ask what was wrong or offer comfort, he just shrugged and started towards the small red button on the other side of the chamber.

* * *

Wheatley and Rick had thought Space had finally broke when he'd dared to speak of anything other than space. Let alone, _earth, _the place he'd come straight from, the place that had kept him _from space_ for so long. They'd been utterly blown away, especially Rick, who had never heard Space talk about anything besides space, even after being stuck with him for who knows how long. But, after a short rant about wanting to go back to earth, he'd gone silent for a good half hour. And then-

"Space. I'm in space. Space, space, love space."

Wheatley had been startled silly, having gotten used to the silence too quickly. Rick had made a comment along the lines of expecting it to happen at one point or another. But, they never did figure out what made him want to go to earth. Perhaps he'd remembered some good time he had while _'being stuck in that asylum of a cage'_- as Rick thought- or _'as a thorn in my side'-_ as Wheatley thought?

Wheatley swore he'd heard that at some point. He shook it off, and gazed over towards Space, who had started back into his usual barrage of space-related words. He found himself honestly wondering what that episode had been about. There had to have been some sort of trigger, right? Rick, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Listening to Space ramble about earth wasn't much different than listening to him ramble about space. It was equally annoying, and actually more confusing, merely because of the fact that Space had _always_ had his mind set on space, and switching to the exact opposite- earth- randomly for a couple hours was just plain weird.

That, and it bugged him. He wanted to go to earth just as bad and he wasn't whining about it. He rolled his eye at the thought just as he heard,

"Spaaaaaaace!"

"Gah! Right in my _ear!_" Rick shouted.

"Well, um, technically, you don't _have_ ears-" Wheatley stated.

"I know." Rick interrupted. "D'he get closer?"

Wheatley looked around to try and find Space, but he didn't see him anywhere. He ended up spending several minutes simply turning himself around the best he could and find his space-obsessed friend. Finally, after several more minutes, he started to turn back towards Rick to report that he hadn't seen Space-

-and nearly got hit in the face with him.

"GAH!" Wheatley exclaimed as Space flew right by him.

"Space." he told them.

"Eh- there he is." Wheatley said dizzily. "And… yes, he _is_ closer to us."

"Oh, good. Then, I ain't hearin' things." Rick replied. "I don't wanna go crazy just yet."

Wheatley nodded. "I hear ya, mate." He watched as Space orbited around them and spun in circles as he flew far behind Rick. "Do you think we'll… ever make it back?"

Rick's first thought was _not in a million years, _but he knew that probably wasn't the answer Wheatley wanted to hear. So, he just said, "I dunno, little buddy."

Wheatley gazed down- not that it did much, space was space- and sighed. "I do hope so." He suddenly looked up. "And I hope that lady isn't dead, yet. I want her to stay alive until I get back."

"Why?" Rick asked, chuckling a bit.

"Well, I gotta tell her how sorry I am for acting up." Wheatley started. "I know, it was most uncalled for to uh… try and kill her."

"Well, it was a little more than uncalled for, sonny."

"I know that!" Wheatley snapped.

Rick was startled by Wheatley's sudden anger. "Whoa, little dude!"

"Sorry about that." Wheatley said. "Havin' a bad day."

"Pfff. Aren't we all?"

"Spaaaaaaace!" Space interrupted.

"'Cept him." Rick corrected.

***sigh* So, yus. I... am gonna go take a shower now. BTW, if I don't update for a long time again, it's either because I've got writer's block or cuz I'm busy coloring or drawing. That, and school's starting tomorrow. I'll be realll busy, so please bare with me! :)**


	10. A New and Deadly Environment

**OKAYYYY! I am utterly, truly sorry that this took so long! I had a crazy writer's block and school and blah blah blah... if I hadn't set myself a due date to finish this, it might've taken much longer. Anyways, I still plan on finishing this fic and sorry for the slightly boring chapter. fffffffffffff**

The green portal opened on the far wall on the other side of the chamber, and a pink one opened next to it. Across the long abyss filled with toxic goo were two cores with there own portal guns, standing side by side and thinking the plan over carefully. There was a wall of emancipation material all the way down to the goo, so simply portaling to the door wouldn't work well. Logic and Morality looked at each other and nodded briefly. Then, Morality jumped off of the platform they stood on and plunged down towards the water. Despite the fact hat she trusted Logic, she felt a pang of adrenalin rushing through her as she got closer and closer.

Logic pointed and quickly shot his second portal- a rust-colored brown one- at the end of a light bridge, and looked down over the platform to watch the blue light bridge cross through the portal and break Morality's fall. She landed on her feet and only wobbled a bit before righting herself again. She gazed up at Logic, who gave her a thumbs up. She returned the gesture and ran down the light bridge to the other side.

Logic nodded and walked up to the glass behind him to watch her run all the way to the other side of the test chamber. She stopped at the end of the light bridge and pointed her portal at the wall to her left. Her portal hit the wall and opened up with a bright purple ring around it. Morality smiled faintly and jumped from the light bridge to the platform to her left where she'd shot the portal at. She blinked and shook her head a bit. She found herself staring at the purple portal, zoning out, _thinking._ Of course, thoughts like _'Are Anger and Curiosity okay?'_ and _'Is this it?'_ had managed to crawl into her head, but now, she felt them jamming themselves up in there and claiming to be her primary focus.

Meanwhile, Logic was standing up on the platform, waiting for her to make her next move.

Morality shook her head and freed herself from her thoughts. Then, she proceeded towards the big dark button on the wall. She stopped in front of it, pulled her arm back, and smacked it as hard as she could with her fist. She looked up as the wall that had been separating her and Logic at the top turned and retracted into the wall. Logic smiled and walked to where Morality had begun at, before jumping down to the light bridge himself. Morality was standing in front of the exit door, waiting for him, when he finally caught up with her.

"Good job, Morality." he said. Morality nodded and walked through the door, Logic following close behind. The portals in the test chamber disappeared and the door shut behind them.

* * *

While Morality and Logic seemed to make a great team, the other cores were having… somewhat worse luck than them.

"Remind me again how this happened?" Craig asked Curiosity angrily.

"I dooon't knowww!" Curiosity balled. "Are we gonna die?!"

"Ugh!" Craig wanted desperately to cover his ears and block out her pitiful crying, but his arms were occupied with keeping him up out of the toxic goo. At some point during one of the tests, the two of them has somehow managed to become wedged in the little tiny space that was a pit of toxic goo, and if they loosened up their already aching limbs, they would surely fall to their death. Curiosity was having a panic attack and Craig was tempted to just himself fall. After all, how much worse was certain death than doing a bunch of useless tests with this lunatic forever? Craig made a mental note to completely blame her for all of this, just because he could get away with doing so.

"What are we going to do?" Curiosity panicked. "Where did my gun go?"

"You dropped it!" Craig snapped back.

"Agh!" Curiosity continued to fret over their unfortunate situation for a few minutes more. And then, without warning, she just went silent. She stared at the camera in the wall as it looked up to examine her. "Maybe the camera lady can help."

"She is the master of this entire facility," Craig said angrily, "not a _camera lady._"

"Are you referring to me, Curiosity core?" GLaDOS asked passively.

"Oh! Ooh! Camera lady, we're over here!" Curiosity hollered.

"I can see you, you know." GLaDOS replied.

"Will you help us?" Curiosity asked in her most innocent voice.

GLaDOS waited a few minutes to reply. "I don't see the necessity in doing so."

"Why are you using big words?" Curiosity complained.

GLaDOS didn't respond.

"She isn't using 'big words,' you imbecile!" Craig snapped.

"Well." GLaDOS finally said. "You two are a very _interesting_ team, aren't you?"

"Fact: this is a disaster." Craig clarified in a monotonous voice. "And it's all your fault."

"Aw. I thought you wanted me to 'help.'" replied GLaDOS.

"We do! We do!" Curiosity said.

"Fact core?"

No response.

Curiosity looked down and waited for him to also say yes.

"Yes. We need help." Craig finally muttered, cringing at the word _help._

Of all the stupiiiiiiiii- _cccckkkttttzzzzz…_

"Gagh!" Craig almost reached up and held his now aching head, but he managed to resist the urge in time to catch himself before he lost his balance and fell to his doom.

"Something wrong down there?" GLaDOS asked, obviously amused.

"N-no…" Craig replied through clenched teeth. "I- we're fine."

"Very well." Curiosity turned her head and looked as far behind her as she could without slipping and she watched as one of the panels on the wall behind her turned on its axis to open up. A slim, metal snake of a wire came slithering out of the wall and turning back and forth as if looking for them. Once GLaDOS had the thing ready, she directed it to shoot towards Curiosity and Craig and hover over them.

"Okay, you'll have to work with me on this. One slip and you _might_ fall in." GLaDOS sounded still amused by Curiosity's fear and Craig's attitude.

"Okay!" Curiosity replied eagerly.

"Good to see you're being happy today." GLaDOS joked. "At least two of us are having fun." And with that, the snaky wire swooped down and wrapped around Curiosity's neck, startling her. Then, it proceeded, in one motion, to pull her up out of the hole and toss her off to the side.

"Ow!" Curiosity rubbed her back when she landed. "Why did you do that?"

"Sorry, Curiosity core." GLaDOS apologized, although Craig doubted she meant it. "But, I felt that your neck was the most efficient place to grab you and pull you out." Curiosity just continued to rub her back. "Seeing as you can't actually choke."

This only brought a new wave of confusion upon her. "I can't?"

"And now you." The wire turned towards Craig, who simply looked away, dreading what was to come, even if she was pulling him away from his doom. Without saying a word, GLaDOS commanded the wire to go down and meet Craig. He watched uneasily as the wire slithered under him and up around his waist. In the next few seconds, the wire got a good grip around him and started to pull up. So, out of instinct, his arms shot up and he grabbed the wire, which continued, uninterrupted, to pull him out of the little death hole and plop him onto his butt on the floor next to it.

The wire loosened up and let go of him, leaving him to kick at the floor to get a few more inches away from the hole. Curiosity hesitantly crawled up to him, but he could sense her coming and didn't want contact of any kind at this point. He tensed up and pulled his hands up, resisting the urge to whack her.

"Are you ok-" Curiosity began.

"Leave me alone!" Craig shouted at her.

Curiosity froze and stared at him for several long minutes. Craig balled his hands into fists and pushed them against his ears, attempting to block out everything, even the low hum in the background that he'd grown so used to over the years. Curiosity could see that he wouldn't be moving again for awhile, so she quietly got up and walked away. She saw the cube sitting a few feet away from the button next to the door. She walked over and absentmindedly kicked the cube over to the button until it was perched firmly on top of it. The door flashed orange and opened up for them. There. Test finished. That wasn't so hard.

Curiosity looked around, trying to decide what to do now. The door was hanging open, inviting them to come through, but she knew it wouldn't make a difference until Craig came with her. The only thing left to do now was think. That was all she _could_ do. She stood in the middle of the floor, staring blankly at the button and the cube, and thought. She thought about Morality, and her two weird brothers. Were they okay? Where were they? Had GLaDOS done something different with them? Killed them? Experimented on them? Left them to fend for themselves in these test chambers like her? Had they become a nuisance and been banished to spa-

_Space. We're in space._

Curiosity abruptly opened her eyes, which had simply hung heavy until she'd closed them without meaning to, as if trying to fall asleep right there while standing up.

_Let's go to space!_

There was nothing she wanted more, to go to Space. She wanted to go find him; he could cheer her up with his optimism. If she _must_ test, why couldn't she test with Space? As long as she'd been away from him, she hadn't thought about him constantly. She had tried to focus on testing. And of course, her curiosity distracted her from everything. But, all the while, she'd always at least subconsciously been thinking about him. It was strange. She thought she'd experienced every happy thought there was to be experienced- along with some negative thoughts, like the terror of nearly being incinerated- but this was a new one. She was usually so excited and simply _happy. _This new feeling was a mix of exhaustion, happiness, and confusion. And she hated confusion. She wanted to know where Space was, and what kind of fun adventures they could have together once she found him. She was curious about what his human body might look like. And what was space like? What was this new feeling and did it have a name? She wanted to know it all, she wanted to _knowww!_

She needed Space to answer those questions for her. She wanted to find him. Wherever he was, someone had to know. Maybe Logic or that lady from the tests. And surely, GLaDOS would know. She knew where everything was, didn't she? The facility was huge, but she could tell her where anything was. Curiosity turned her head towards the nearest camera and looked into the lenses. She couldn't see a face, but she knew GLaDOS was there.

"Cam-" She paused. "GLaDOS?"

"Yes, Curiosity core?" came the reply from all around.

Curiosity hesitated. "Where is Space?"

"Space?" GLaDOS paused. "Well, from here, that would be up. In space. With stars, and the moon. And earth… you'll probably never view earth from space's view."

"You mean… Space is… in _space_?"

"Um…" GLaDOS paused, obviously baffled by her odd question. "Yes."

Curiosity walked closer to the camera, anxiously. "And- and where's _that_?"

"I just told you." GLaDOS replied. "Up there. Away from earth. Very far away."

"Far away?" Curiosity gave the camera a sad look. "But-"

"Why are you so interested in space?" Curiosity looked down and tried to remember what humans do when they're sad. Something involving their eyes leaking. Their faces got wet when they were sad, sometimes even when they were really, really furious. Well, whatever it was, she couldn't seem to make her new body do that.

"Why am I so interested in Space?" she repeated quietly.

GLaDOS didn't reply.

"I don't know that, either."

Curiosity stood there like a lifeless statue for awhile. Then, when her artificial nervous system told her that her legs needed a rest, she walked over and found a dark corner to sit in.

* * *

Anger had been left without a testing partner, and had lost interest in the actual test about thirty minutes after being shoved into the room and locked in. During those thirty minutes, he'd discovered that lasers were pretty, but painful. The wall panels didn't like him- they tended to bounce up randomly and hit him- and he didn't want to try and see if he was able to swim, because the goo looked disgusting. Lights were his best friends, moving platforms scared him, and so did the random loud noises that would sound off every now and then. He could walk okay, but he preferred to stay on all fours. However, he had to carry his portal gun.

After making it across the goo to a second platform, he had set his portal gun down and curled up like a dog underneath the tilted portalable panel, hoping to just take a nap and forget everything that had happened for awhile. But, no…

"What are you doing in there?" The voice was loud and it came from everywhere at once. She sounded irritated. "Why aren't you finishing the test?" Anger cringed at her voice. It was the most annoying sound he'd heard thus far, and that was saying something. But, it didn't want to stop. "If you're not going to test properly, I can find you a _new_ assignment." This time, Anger shuddered. Her voice was becoming poisonous in a way he couldn't place. "But, you won't like it very much…"

Without saying a word, Anger stood up, careful not to bump his head on the panel, and picked up his portal gun. He glanced around, searching for the source of the voice. But, even when it interrupted the silence again, he couldn't find it.

"Good. Now, finish the test, Anger core." GLaDOS said in a sing-song voice. "You're almost there."

Anger growled at the voice.

"I heard that."

Anger glanced around, startled that she had responded to that. Then, he looked across the room at the white wall on the other side and, despite his still clouded mind, was able to deduce that portaling over there could get him closer to the door. Still, he stood there for a long time, staring blankly across the room, as if wondering if he should even go or not. He decided he should when he remembered that GLaDOS was holding some kind of threat over his head. So, without another thought, he whirled around and shot a blue portal at the wall to his left. Then, he turned towards the wall across the room, shot the orange portal all the way over the deadly goo, and watched it open on the other side of the room.

Anger started towards his new blue portal, ready to get out of this chamber and- in his mind- back to his comrades. However, he stopped right in front of the portal and stared at it, his paranoid mind somehow finding a new thought under all the white noise: he hadn't tried jumping through a portal yet, so what it would do was beyond him. And again, the annoying ceiling voice was putting more pressure on him to finish the test.

"What's wrong?" she asked innocently. "You looked so confident a moment ago."

Anger shook his head and glanced through the portal, his eyes wide. He saw a humanoid figure through the portal, far across another lake of goo.

"That portal isn't going to kill you, you know." GLaDOS informed him. "Just don't build up too much momentum, lest you fall into deadly waters."

But, despite her "encouraging" information, he was zoned out and staring at the new figure. The fact that made him ready to take the chance of jumping through a portal wasn't that he wouldn't die, but that he saw someone else on the other side. And it was enough to get him to bend his knees and lean back, before taking his first plunge through a portal. Suddenly, all of gravity and logic switched on him and he landed shakily on his feet on the other side. As soon as he'd regained his balance, he stared across the goo to the other side where he'd seen the new figure, but it was gone.

Perhaps he'd decided to get out of here without him.

Whatever the reason, the other human was nowhere to be found in his line of sight, so with that distraction gone, he continued on with the test with slight hope that he would find the other cores behind the exit door that was unnecessarily hard to open. It took him about ten minutes just to decide that he needed to place his blue portal on the somewhat hidden white panel on the platform above him, and about six pushes of a button to realize exactly where the cube was going and how he needed to get it.

He placed a portal on each of the tilted platforms across the water and pressed the button again. Yet another cube came bouncing back and forth between the aerial faith plates, through the portals, and straight for him. He reached out to catch the cube in midair, but having misjudged where exactly it would land, he raised his hands too high and found himself stumbling backwards and landing on his butt with the cube in his lap. He growled at the pain in his stomach and glared at the button he'd pressed seven times to get the cube. He was tempted to just sit there and stare at nothing for the rest of the day.

But, after a few minutes, he'd gotten over his initial shock and stood up, the cube in his hands. He walked over to the door and held up the cube, as if expecting it to scan the blasted thing and let him through already. It took too long for it not to work, so Anger moved on to the next plan. He dropped the cube at his feet and knocked on the door. He'd heard the noise multiple times and he'd seen videos in GLaDOS's mainframe of people knocking on doors. And they'd always opened! Although, he knew he had to be quick, because some of the doors would close quickly after opening.

Alas, the door never opened.

Anger threw his hands up and gripped the hair that he was still getting used to having in the first place. "Ugghhh!" As ignorant and inexperienced as he was with testing, it only succeeded in aggravating him more. But, to his surprise, the annoying ceiling voice never said anything about it.

**I know, sucky ending to the chapter. But, I was trying to make his testing experience interesting with his personality. Some of it was just the typical getting a hold of a cube and putting it on a button routine (which, he still hasn't spotted the button that the cube goes on yet lol). Also, the test chamber he's in is one of the chambers from the game, because that's where I pictured him. And I might look for a co-op level builder and build the one Morality and Logic were in.**


End file.
